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4-26 July 2008 62nd Festival d’Avignon English version of the program

This document contains the English version of the program. The page references refer to the French version where details of the casts and crews are also available.

page 2 experience but that will strike each of them differ- ently. In this sense, it symbolically goes beyond EDITORIAL the venue of the theatre itself and invests the city. That is why public policies, in France as in Europe, Midway in the journey of our life need to consider artistic creation as an unalien- I came to myself in a dark wood, able public good and that its production and pro- for the straight way was lost. gramming must be supported apart from just the Ah, how hard it is to tell laws of the market, in an approach centred on sol- the nature of that wood, savage, idarity and sharing. dense and harsh – We await you, artists and spectators, this summer the very thought of it renews my fear! in Avignon, so that theatre comes to pass and, we, Hell (Canto I), The Divine Comedy, Dante together bear witness to its necessity, diversity and vitality. Before creating this 62nd Festival, we spent a great deal of time talking with the actress Valérie Hortense Archambault, Vincent Baudriller directors Dréville and the Italian artist Romeo Castellucci, Avignon, 7 March 2008 whom we asked to be associate artists together. They are in very different creation spaces. Valérie Dréville, an actress, built an artist’s career with directors such as Antoine Vitez, Claude Régy, Alain Françon and Anatoli Vassiliev. Romeo page 3 Castellucci, the creator of his own shows, has CONVERSATION invented a sensitive and visual form of theatre that is extraordinarily powerful. Their art forms always FOR THE FESTIVAL offer the spectators an opportunity to have a D’AVIGNON 2008 strong and singular experience and often lead them to unexpected territories, to hear beyond Extracts from a crossed interview with Valérie Dréville, words, to see beyond images. Romeo Castellucci, Hortense Archambault We chose to publish one of our conversations to and Vincent Baudriller accompany the spectators in their journey through the Festival. Romeo Castellucci: There has always been an This Festival’s creations query us on life and death, absolutely essential confrontation in Avignon of on our fears and melancholy, our need to love and theatre work with the public. Right from my first to believe, to grow and transmit. Based on con- show here, Giulio Cesare in 1998, there had been at temporary writings or revisiting the great works of the same time that total fragility, that absolute the European repertory, they will call on our exposure, as if the show were naked in front of the curiosity, our desire for discovery and will some- public and the protection brought by the fact of times take us into an unknown land to better stim- being part of a more general intention specific to ulate our own critical spirit. As it encompasses the the Festival, to its choice, its ambitions, the com- mystery of the human being in all his complexity, munity that it brings together. […] as it calls on the spectator’s intelligence and respects the freedom of his viewpoint on the Valérie Dréville: I think that Avignon is where it all shows, this Festival is political and resists the began. In 1987, with The Satin Slipper staged by temptations to simplify what surround us. Antoine Vitez in the Cour d’honneur, this resem- It reminds us that theatre has carried within itself, bles a revelation vis-à-vis theatre, vis-à-vis an since its very beginnings, that paradoxical desire adventure like that of The Satin Slipper, vis-à-vis for a common image of the world that is shared by Antoine Vitez, the encounter with Claudel, with the spectators who are present, together, at an the actors or the public. This fuel is still burning,

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20 years later, a living flame with slow combus- actor, on the stage, you really feel the concentra- tion. Avignon… It’s a certain way of doing theatre tion, the transformation at work in the show. that includes a feeling of happiness, an extremely Something starts to vibrate between people, sensual pleasure, a disconcerting jubilation. I’ve which simultaneously mobilizes seeing, hearing, always felt intense happiness here, connected to skin, bodies. The spectator abandons his passivity, the freedom left up to the shows, to childhood comes out of himself to offer himself to the show memories that resurfaced, but also because it’s a he is seeing. space of combat and conflict. You can’t have one without the other: that’s the condition for the You’ll find this complete crossed interview in pleasure taken and given in Avignon. a work published in collaboration with P.O.L éditions, distributed free of charge on request Hortense Archambault: The “contract” signed at the Cloître Saint-Louis, the École d’Art and between the Festival and the spectators doesn’t the Festival’s shop. It can also be downloaded prevent conflict, or a form of combat, but it gives it from the Internet site. a framework in which the shows play by certain rules, which imply respect for others. The stronger the contract, the more relief the encounter can take. page 4 Vincent Baudriller: The sensuality and combat VALÉRIE DRÉVILLE Valérie is talking about also go through the spec- tator’s body. […] Associate artist

Romeo Castellucci: I have the impression that It is the desire to learn that seems to be at the heart time is divided in two here. The time of the per- of Valérie Dréville’s approach to acting, even more formance, which is often epidermal […] and then than the desire to act. This is undoubtedly what that of the encounter, the discussion, the forum, makes her career atypical, rich in adventures and which for me is a lot more serene… Theatre is a powerful experiences that transform her and per- very strong experience of oneself as if it involved a mit her to always be where she is not necessarily fit of awareness. Knowledge reaches each specta- expected. Learning and transmitting, of course, tor through his body. So that has something to do because Valérie Dréville does not want to isolate with each individual’s solitude. But theatre makes herself in an individual practice whose sterility it possible to share this solitude with other soli- would be totally foreign to her nature, someone tudes during a performance. who loves above all to share. Learning at the school That is what the show can seize upon, but it is a of the Théâtre National de Chaillot with Antoine fleeting and fragile impression. Theatre, as I con- Vitez, her first master, the one who taught her that ceive it, is a ceremonial that could awaken the you must look outside yourself. Under his direction, spectator’s view on things. she acted in some of the most important shows in We need to share this view, it’s a necessity, it isn’t the 1980s: Electra by Sophocles, The Satin Slipper simple curiosity, that flat view of communication, by Paul Claudel, Galileo by Bertolt Brecht and La the theatre’s view that we can share while watch- Celestina by Fernando de Rojas. Learning with ing a show, is on the contrary hypnotic, it moves, it Claude Régy, a master met at the Conservatoire is capable of shifting and “shaping” the things it National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique of Paris which sees. But that is only possible because of the com- she entered after the Chaillot. With Claude Régy, munion with the spectators. […] she explored another dimension of acting that she This view is that of the body, it is very physical: it did not consider opposed to that of Antoine Vitez functions like a pore in the skin, through which but, on the contrary, that she used as an extension moods, emotions, sensations and also knowledge of what she had already learned. With Claude pass. Without presupposition, without advance Régy, she went deeper into herself to leave the notice, the encounter is the strongest possible, possibility of expressing herself to her uncon- when the spectator is like a child. scious, and through it she encountered the uni- verses of Gregory Motton (The Terrible Voice of Vincent Baudriller: Less in recognition than in Satan), Jon Fosse (Someone Is Going to Come, discovery… then Variations of Dead), David Harrower (Knives in Hens), Henri Meschonnic (who translated the Bibli- Valérie Dréville: It’s a form of abandonment too… cal psalms in Like a song of David) and Maurice When viewing a show, you sometimes say to your- Maeterlinck (The Death of Tintagiles). Joining the self: “I have to let go of part of me…” You have to Comédie-Française as a resident on the request of let go, release yourself, it’s difficult. Sometimes Antoine Vitez, who was appointed its administrator you can’t find it. It’s a very strange exercise. As an in 1988, she met her third master there, the Russian

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director Anatoli Vassiliev, who asked her to act in Masked Ball by Lermontov. Under his direction, she page 6 acted notably in Medea Material by Heiner Müller GAËL BARON / for several successive seasons starting in 2002. She had previously acted in Amphitryon by Molière, NICOLAS BOUCHAUD / then took charge, on Vassiliev’s request, of the CHARLOTTE CLAMENS / “verbal training” of her fellow actors at the Comédie-Française for a new creation of Amphit- VALÉRIE DRÉVILLE / ryon by the Russian master in 2002. Meeting Ana- JEAN-FRANÇOIS toli Vassiliev was decisive for the actress, not only for the shows in which he offered her to act, but SIVADIER also, and perhaps above all, because this encounter allowed her to return to training. It permitted her to Gaël Baron studied at the Conservatoire National acquire knowledge of the Russian school and the Supérieur d’Art Dramatique. While acting in works tradition that stemmed from Stanislavski, and to by Pasolini, Koltès, Wyspianski, Lagarce and discover the heart of Anatoli Vassiliev’s research: a Schwab under the direction of Stanislas Nordey, he determination to go towards a theatre of ideas that also worked for many directors including Claude expresses itself through work on words. To under- Régy, Jean-Pierre Vincent, Stéphanie Loïk, Gildas take this challenge, she learned Russian and spent Milin, Jean-François Sivadier, Gislaine Drahy, time on several occasions in his theatre school in Françoise Coupat, Gérard Watkins, Bruno Meyssat Moscow. These intensive learning periods did not and Daniel Jeanneteau. prevent her from working as much in cinema (with Jean- Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Philippe Garrel, Nicolas Bouchaud met Didier-Georges Gabily Arnaud Desplechin, Nicolas Klotz, Michel Deville) (1955-1996) in 1992 with whom he worked until the as in the theatre with Alain Françon who directed death of the author-director, who produced sev- her in two plays by Edward Bond (The War Plays in eral shows that were among the most important 1994 and Chair in 2006), Luc Bondy for whom she of their period. He then continued the same type was an unforgettable Phedra, Aurélien Recoing of adventure with Jean-François Sivadier. He also who offered her a role in Golden Head by Paul notably worked with Rodrigo García, Bernard Claudel, but also Bruno Bayen, Jean-Pierre Vincent, Sobel and the Théâtre Dromesko. At the Festival Lluis Pasqual, Julie Brochen… For each of these d’Avignon, he already acted in Hollows and Des directors, she has always been ready to call herself cercueils de zinc (Zine Coffins) by Didier-Georges into question, contributing her energy, availability Gabily in 1993, Henry IV by Shakespeare directed and commitment to make an “adventurous” the- by Yann-Joël Collin in 1999 and the title roles atre that addresses itself to a public curious about directed by Jean-François Sivadier – Galileo by these adventures and discoveries come alive. At Brecht in 2002, Danton’s Death by Büchner in the Festival d’Avignon, she acted in The Satin Slip- 2005 and King Lear by Shakespeare in 2007. per by Paul Claudel, directed by Antoine Vitez (1987) in the Cour d’honneur of the Popes’ Palace, Charlotte Clamens met Valérie Dréville at the La Celestina de Fernando de Rojas, directed by Chaillot school under the direction of Antoine Antoine Vitez (1989), The War Plays by Edward Vitez, who hired her to act in Electra in 1986. She Bond, directed by Alain Françon (1994), Amphit- next worked with Laurent Pelly and Alain Françon, ryon by Molière, directed by Anatoli Vassiliev Marcel Bozonnet and Tilly, then with Jean- (1997), Medea Material by Heiner Müller, directed François Sivadier. She acted in Italienne avec by Anatoli Vassiliev (2002) and Chair by Edward orchestre (Italian with Orchestra), Noli me tangere Bond, directed by Alain Françon (2006). She and Danton’s Death. She also teaches in several worked with Julie Brochen contributing her view- schools. In Break of Noon, she contributes an out- point to the staging of The Exchange by Paul side view to its collective staging. At the Festival Claudel, presented at the Festival d’Avignon 2007. d’Avignon, Charlotte Clamens acted in Henry IV by She has also given many readings, the most recent Shakespeare directed by Yann-Joël Collin in 1999, ones being poems by Otto Tolnaï in 2006 and by Bérénice by Racine directed by Lambert Wilson in Robert Desnos in 2007. 2001 and Danton’s Death by Büchner directed by Jean-François Sivadier in 2005.

Trained as an actor by Didier-Georges Gabily, then at the school of the Théâtre National de Stras- bourg, Jean-François Sivadier has notably worked with Jacques Lasalle, Christian Rist, Alain Françon, Dominique Pitoiset, while becoming a

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director. He wrote Italienne avec orchestre (Italian moment”, without any retrospection, when he with Orchestra), which premiered in 1996 and was found himself in the loss and pain of a great love, revived in 2003, a brilliant satire on the world of mad, carnal, erotic. The word “sharing” also refers opera that he frequented when he put on stage to amorous sharing, the object of the sharing, this Madame Butterfly by Puccini and Wozzeck by Ysé who successively belongs to the three men in Alban Berg. Faithful to his training with Didier- the play, shared between contradictory desires. It Georges Gabily, he considers that theatre can only is a singular play because it is autobiographical: be a collective work. At the Festival d’Avignon, “Claudel wrote and rewrote Break of Noon with Jean-François Sivadier acted in Hollows by Didier- the feeling of writing and rewriting his own life as Georges Gabily in 1993 and in Henry IV by Shake- if the biographical text and the dramatic text were speare directed by Yann-Joël Collin in 1999 and the two sides of the same text”, Anne Ubersfeld presented Galileo by Brecht in 2002, a diptych, notes. Break of Noon is firstly the experience of Galileo – Danton’s Death by Büchner in 2005, and exile, of China which gradually hems in the charac- King Lear by Shakespeare in the Cour d’honneur ters with its shadows, and that of war as well, at of the Popes’ Palace in 2007. the moment of the Chinese Boxer Rebellion against European occupation. Claudel was con- Paul Claudel (1868-1955) was 37 years old when fronted on all sides by the colonial problem with its he wrote Break of Noon, a work he clearly brutality and rapacious conquest. It is in this war acknowledged as autobiographical. At the end of situation that the exaltation of carnal and spiritual a love relationship with a married woman, he desire between Ysé and Mesa, emblematic figures experienced the drama of separation. From this of impossible love, is consumed… To tell the truth passion he lived on Chinese soil, when he was the about these conflicts, the author has invented a French consul in Fou Tcheou, was born the first unique language, far from academicism, a lan- version of Break of Noon, published in 150 copies guage of breath that questions the very practice of secretly sent to a few friends. It was only in 1948 the actor and that involves a genuine theatrical- that he agreed that a reworked version be pub- ness of the bodies. We can dream of this theatre lished and staged by Jean-Louis Barrault. ensemble as a collective power, a poetic associa- tion, with art as the authentic utopian horizon. Partage de midi (Break of Noon) BY PAUL CLAUDEL 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 14 15 16 page 8 17 18 22 23 24 25 26 ON VALÉRIE DRÉVILLE CARRIÈRE DE BOULBON • 9.30 p.m. • estimated running time 2 hours 45 mins • 2008 premiere Rendez-vous directed by Gaël Baron, Nicolas Bouchaud, Charlotte with Antoine Vitez Clamens, Valérie Dréville and Jean-François Sivadier food and beverages available at the venue “La nostalgie de l’avenir” (“The nostalgia of the future”) 7–22 July A rare project in the French theatre, Break of MUSÉE CALVET • 11 a.m. • free admission Noon is acted and directed by four actors: Valérie detailed program in the spectator’s guide, available at Dréville, Jean-François Sivadier, Nicolas Bouchaud the beginning of July and Gaël Baron, under the gaze of a fifth person: Charlotte Clamens. Actors with diverse careers It is inconceivable for Valérie Dréville to be an whose situation is a mirror image of that of the associate artist of the Festival d’Avignon without characters in Break of Noon, as is described at the mentioning Antoine Vitez. With the Festival d’Avi- beginning of act 1: “Let us examine our hands as gnon, several students, colleagues and friends of when you play poker, the cards dealt / Here we are Antoine Vitez got together to discuss his still tan- involved together in the game like four needles, gible presence in today’s theatre, to have his and who knows the wool / That fate has reserved words ring out, those words in movement that for us to knit all four of us together?” In Claudel’s continue to be a stimulant. To shed light on the writing, actors and characters merge and space is many dimensions this man of the theatre had, and first shown as theatre, as the place of an experi- on his remarkable richness – director, pedagogue, ence that is undertaken between actors and spec- poet, translator – they imagined rendez-vous with tators, like an invitation to share the same treas- different forms and contents, mirroring Antoine ure. Break of Noon, presented here in its first Vitez himself. These rendez-vous will be opened version, unfolds around the mystery of passion. by a cycle of accounts on the work and the man, in Claudel wrote this version “in the heat of the collaboration with France Culture.

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Words on Antoine Vitez France Culture his actors – so that we can enter this intimacy 7 July Alain Crombecque (tentative) between the director, his actors and their art. 8 July Valérie Dréville • 9 July Pierre Vial 10 July (underway) • 11 July Jack Ralite and 4-26 July • ÉCOLE D’ART 16 July opening hours 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Vitez en effigie (Vitez in effigy) Portraits au miroir (Portraits in the Mirror) proposed by Éloi Recoing exhibition of photographs by Antoine Vitez Using puppets, a plethora of texts by Antoine In addition to being a director, writer and Vitez staged to make “something” of the actor’s translator, Antoine Vitez, a photographer’s son, art, as he conceived it, spring forth. also did a great deal of photographic work including portraits, bringing together images of 17 July shows, rehearsals, backstage and actors being “Je suis Ysé, c’est moi” (“I am Ysé, it is I”) made up. This series titled Portraits in the Mirror, proposed by Valérie Dréville 19 photos of which can be seen here, is marked Madeleine Marion played Ysé in Break of Noon by the choice of a form favourable to capturing opposite Antoine Vitez directed by Roland human beings, a sharp, incisive work. Monod in 1958. Valérie Dréville, Vitez’s student, plays Ysé today at the Festival 2008. Two actresses will dialogue face to face on their Anatoli Vassiliev interpretation of the role, their view of the play and Vitez’ relationship to Paul Claudel. Thérèse philosophe (Thérèse the Philosopher) 7 July • MUSÉE CALVET • 7 p.m. • free admission 18 July public broadcast of the radio premiere created for “L’école est le plus beau France Culture by Anatoli Vassiliev and Jacques Taroni théâtre du monde” Published in 1748, Thérèse the Philosopher was (“School is the most beautiful theatre in the world”) valued by Marquis de Sade who considered this proposed by Dominique Valadié “charming work” as “the only one that pleasantly Dominique Valadié, herself trained by Vitez, connects lust and impiety”. But its real originality presents with her first-year students at the is less a matter of its justification of nature and Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art sensual pleasure as the importance it gives to Dramatique a workshop based on Tartuffe so woman’s expression of desire. Anatoli presented that the transmission of these words incarnated the theatre premiere of this text at the Odéon- in the very bodies of the young actors can be felt. Théâtre de l’Europe in 2007.

19 July Anatoli Vassiliev workshop “Les hommes sont des arbres” 5-11 July • ATELIER ISTS • 7.30 p.m. (“Men are trees”) Creations of students at the Laboratory of proposed by Georges Aperghis Artistic Research and Training directed by Anatoli At the crossroads of poetry and music, an actor Vassiliev at the ENSATT from 2004 to 2008. will recite Antoine Vitez’s poems; intruding between these readings, a pianist will interpret Les Secrets élémentaires (The Elementary Secrets), pieces for piano composed by Georges Aperghis. page 10 20 July ON VALÉRIE DRÉVILLE “Jeudi, je traduis du grec” (“Thursday, I’m translating from the Greek”) proposed by Georges Banu and Éloi Recoing After studying literature and philosophy, Célia Enlightenment on Antoine Vitez’s relationship Houdart became assistant director for Oskar with foreign languages, a lover of languages Gomez Mata, Arthur Nauzyciel and Christian Rist for whom “directing means translating”. before devoting herself to writing and producing her own works, which redistribute writing, sound 22 July image and movement in a global non-narrative “On entend dans la nuit le rire des poetic form. Since 1999, she has created Rotozaza acteurs…” (“We hear actors’ laughter in the night…”) soir(é)électrogène pour Jean Tinguely composed proposed by Nathalie Léger and Philippe Girard from interviews with the Swiss sculptor, Did You Actors will read a group of unpublished texts – Ever See Piedmontese Hills? after Cesare Pavese, letters and notes sent by Antoine Vitez to M&W (oratorio-diptych) in which she queries texts

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by Musil, Wittgenstein, A King without Distraction and the production of images), aiming at reaching after Jean Giono and Franz Schubert and The Phi- the spectator’s senses. Stagecraft and its trades, losophy of the Enlightenment, an installation co- like the new technologies and their most sophisti- produced with Claire Peverelli. Célia Houdart cated manifestations, are mobilized in the invests theatres, galleries, public venues and minutely detailed conception of different shows, streets to question theatre practice and to put it in both very frontal and very elaborate. On each contact with the most diversified publics. occasion, the matter is one of forging a “stage lan- guage” whose truth is revealed through an energy of bodies, through the vital and concrete presence Précisions sur les vagues #2 of materials, movement, flesh, sound and visual (Precisions on the Waves #2) elements, staged to produce meaning in the spec- 4-26 July • ÉCOLE D’ART • opening hours 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. tator’s view. In his creations, he often works with free admission • 2008 premiere children and also puts on shows for them like proposed by Célia Houdart Hansel and Gretel or Buchettino (Tom Thumb). Since the mid-1990s, the Societas’ shows have Upon reading Précisions sur les vagues (Precisions become increasingly well-known, especially Ham- on the Waves) by Marie Darrieussecq, Célia let and The Vehement Exteriority of the Death of a Houdart wanted to have this text heard. It is the Mollusc, Masoch and Orestea, an “organic com- minutely detailed description of marine phenom- edy” based on the original Greek play. His shows ena – whether they are scientific or poetic is not sometimes divide the public, but compel recogni- clear to us. The spectator is invited to enter an tion as an experience that remains imprinted in installation where Marie Darrieussecq’s words, each spectator’s sensorial memory. Romeo spoken by Valérie Dréville, are disseminated in a Castellucci accepts this contradictory perception sound and light space. The sound track conceived and does not hesitate to meet the public. He by Sébastien Roux is made up of randomly engages in dialogue and likes to explain himself arranged and disseminated mini-sequences. Small and the Festival d’Avignon has given him many blocks of texts and sounds unfurl like waves, to occasions to do so. Romeo Castellucci presented infinity. At any time of the day, we can access what his first show, Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) after is simultaneously pocket theatre, a music kiosk or Shakespeare at the Festival in 1998. He returned in a radio studio, designed by Oliver Vadrot, to listen 1999 with Journey to the End of Night by Céline, to what might be a lecture, a lesson about things which was one of the premiere events of the Fes- or a poem. A journey through time and space, a tival in the Cour du lycée Saint-Joseph, then in crossing of continents, from the “roller” of the 2000 with Genesi. In 2001, Romeo Castellucci and Atlantic coasts to the “tsunami” of the Indian Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio launched the enormous Ocean, these waves recount a part of the world, cycle of Tragedia endogonidia, a performance sys- between the gentle lapping of water to the fury of tem that, like a living organism, transforms itself in a tidal wave. time and space depending on the path it takes from one premiere to another through European cities, leaving from Cesena to return there, by way of Berlin, Brussels, Bergen, Paris, Rome, Stras- page 12 bourg, London, Marseille and Avignon. The theme ROMEO CASTELLUCCI / common to the 11 episodes, spread out over four years and an entire continent, is a lyricism of suf- SOCÌETAS RAFFAELLO fering, from which a vital energy of bodies SANZIO emerges that the spectator perceives through a certain violence, but also through the experience Associate artist of the movements, rhythms, colours and sounds of our contemporary world. In 2002, Castellucci After studying plastic arts at the Beaux-Arts of premiered Episode A.#02 Avignon of Tragedia Bologna, Romeo Castellucci founded in 1981 endogonidia at the Festival, alongside an exhibi- Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, with his wife, the play- tion of some of his aesthetic and biological wright Chiara Guidi, and his sister, the writer Clau- machines at the Chapelle Saint-Charles, including dia Castellucci. They moved to Cesena, into the a large “ram” that was on the Festival poster, Teatro Comandini, a former ironworks, a space signed by Castellucci. Then he presented B.#03 favourable to stage experiments, in the Italian Berlin and BR.#04 Brussels in 2005 and premiered region of Emilia-Romagna. It is here that Romeo Crescite XII and XIII Avignon. Last year, he offered Castellucci developed an original stage art, bring- Hey Girl! at the Église des Célestins. This year, ing together all forms of artistic expression (the- Romeo Castellucci proposes three shows inspired atre, music, painting, opera as well as mechanics by Dante’s The Divine Comedy.

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La Divina Commedia question. Alone on the large stage, or on the con- trary, walled in by the crowd and confronted with If The Divine Comedy is a text that has accompa- the world’s hubbub, the man that Romeo Castel- nied Romeo Castellucci since his adolescence, he lucci puts on stage fully suffers, bewildered from does not show a literal “adaptation” of it. His work this experience of loss of self. Everything here is inspired by this text, as he writes in his working aggresses him, the violence of the images, the fall notes: “Read, reread, dilate, hammer at and study of his own body into matter, the animals and spec- in depth The Divine Comedy so that it can be for- tres. The visual dynamic of this show possesses gotten. Absorb it through the epidermis. Let it dry the consistency of this stupor, sometimes this on me like a wet shirt”. But he especially aims at dread, that seizes the man when he is reduced to “becoming” Dante: “In this sense, being Dante. his paltriness, defenceless faced with the elements Taking on his behaviour as the start of a journey to that overwhelm him. But this fragility is a resource, the unknown.” The Divine Comedy is a sacred however, because it is the condition of a paradox- poem by the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri ical gentleness. Romeo Castellucci shows each (1265-1321), comprised of three parts, Inferno spectator that at the bottom of his own fears (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Par- there is a secret space, marked by melancholy, in adise), each composed of 33 canti plus an intro- which he hangs on to life, to “the incredible nostal- ductory canto. In all, there are 100 canti, nearly gia of his own life”. This Inferno is also the first 150,000 verses, written between 1307 and 1319 encounter between Romeo Castellucci and the when, at the end of his life, Dante finished his Cour d’honneur of the Popes’ Palace. The artist work, both relieved and melancholic. The Divine dreamed of it, the artist who had already written Comedy was composed at the same time as the about this site three years ago: “We wanted to installation of the papacy in Avignon and there- imagine a series of events, an occupation of the fore as the construction of the first Popes’ Palace. space, that would be capable of meeting this The Divine Comedy is more than a literary monu- architecture, not as scenery but as the mythic past ment for Western culture: it is a reference. Even for claiming to be taken up once again and resusci- those who have never read it, this text makes tated, as the achievement of what remained sense and seems like a mythic country in which uncompleted, extravagant, aborted”. And finally, you visit the underworld dreading its punish- here is Romeo Castellucci faced with the impossi- ments, in which you go through paradise hoping ble, desired and dreaded. Put to the challenge. for its joys. Many writers and artists have been fas- cinated by this text, its images, visions, hallucina- page 15 tions, the breadth of its registers (amorous, mysti- (Purgatory) cal, erudite, allegorical, political, poetical…) and Purgatorio BY ROMEO CASTELLUCCI many have wanted to translate it to better assimi- loosely inspired by Dante’s The Divine Comedy late its treasures (Dumas, Stendhal, Baudelaire, Nerval, Lautréamont, to mention just a few). 9 10 11 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 Romeo Castellucci attempts to “hurl down The CHÂTEAUBLANC PARC DES EXPOSITIONS • 6 p.m. Divine Comedy on the earth of a stage”. He offers estimated running time 1 hour 30 mins • 2008 premiere the spectator, in three stages and at three venues direction, scenography, lighting, costumes of the Festival, a crossing, the experience of a by Romeo Castellucci Divine Comedy. The man who goes through purgatory – the “song page 14 of the earth” – is a curious being, constantly stopped by the concrete nature of the things and (Hell) Inferno objects that surround him, in a depiction of his BY ROMEO CASTELLUCCI own life. This material occupies him, blocks his loosely inspired by Dante’s The Divine Comedy way, attaches him and often torments him. It bears 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 witness to what exactly purgatory is to Romeo COUR D’HONNEUR OF THE POPES’ PALACE • 10 p.m. Castellucci: human life in its daily repetition, famil- estimated running time 1 hour 30 mins • 2008 premiere iarity with everyday tasks, the trap of routine, the direction, scenography, lighting, costumes experience of the ordinary body, encounters with by Romeo Castellucci the finished world, known nature, the substances of life. He knows that he is condemned to wander Inferno is a monument of pain. The artist must there, among reality, represented both without pay. In a dark wood in which he is immediately distance, abstractly, and hyper-realistically, “a real- plunged, he doubts, he fears, he suffers. But what ity without a shadow” says the director, who has sin is the artist guilty of? If he is thus lost, it is engaged himself in a major work on evolving because he does not know the answer to this forms. Punishment, here, is just living, experiencing

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the world. This Purgatorio is therefore more than a show because it is also the occasion, for the spec- page 17 reading with France Culture tator, for an experience that Romeo Castellucci considers very valuable: finding oneself, suddenly, VALÉRIE DRÉVILLE / on the other side of stagecraft, behind the per- formance. As if each individual could attend the ROMEO CASTELLUCCI projected show of his own life, but a primitive one, sent back to the earliest times, those of origins and La Divine Comédie birth. This suddenly offered lucidity, like an experi- (The Divine Comedy) ence of a return to vision within contemporary BY DANTE (extracts) nature, a return to sensation in the midst of a mod- 21 July ern city, isn’t it even more terrible? It is an existen- COUR D’HONNEUR OF THE POPES’ PALACE • 10 p.m. tial anguish that springs up from this show, as if estimated running time 2 hours sensations and the body were dissolving in matter. translation by Jacqueline Risset page 16 reading directed by Valérie Dréville Paradiso (Paradise) Out of this vast text of The Divine Comedy, Valérie BY ROMEO CASTELLUCCI Dréville has chosen a few canti that she will pres- theatre installation loosely inspired by Dante’s ent, accompanied by five actors, in the Cour The Divine Comedy d’honneur of the Popes’ Palace, during a single 11 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 reading combining Jacqueline Risset’s French 20 21 22 24 25 26 translation and Dante’s original Italian poems. ÉGLISE DES CÉLESTINS • opening hours 1 - 3.30 p.m. Through the three canti from Hell, the four canti and 4.30 - 7 p.m. • tickets sold only at the installation site from Purgatory and the two canti from Paradise 2008 premiere that she has selected, it is Dante’s itinerary, his direction, scenography, lighting, costumes march through this immense dark forest, that by Romeo Castellucci Valérie Dréville wanted to stress by also present- ing the voices of the poet’s travel companions. It is Romeo Castellucci has installed his paradise on the central figure of Beatrice, the woman the poet the grounds of the Église des Célestins, between adored, whom he met when they were 8 and 9 the old walls. The spectator who freely roams years old respectively, whom he saw twice with- through this space enters his own intimacy, a out ever speaking to her, who will be on the stage, process shaped by silent contemplation, by light this beloved woman from whom he was systemat- that, from blinding, becomes dim, by a host of ically separated and for whom he started this long reflections, by omnipresent sounds. It is a para- journey. In collaboration with Romeo Castellucci, doxical world, without any incarnation: in Inferno, Valérie Dréville will make the burning flame that man is excluded from the elect, here he is devoured the poet spring out and that at the same excluded from the world, condemned to wander time propelled him in this quest for the woman in an incorporeal, faceless universe without mat- whose image crystallized the absolute nature of ter, a place of pure light and limitless sounds, love. From Beatrice of The Divine Comedy to Ysé totally devoted to the sole glory of God the cre- of Break of Noon, Valérie Dréville sees an obvious ator. “I think that it is the most terrible canto,” connection, a proximity that Paul Claudel himself Castellucci points out regarding Dante’s Paradise, felt when quoting Dante in his Odes. “a form of reversed exclusion and not a welcome!” Everything is focused on the canto of divine glory, and to such a degree that the spectators’ bodies seem on The Divine Comedy to dissolve in the light, the sounds and the reflec- A Théâtre des Idées on 10 July, meetings and tions as though they were losing their substance lectures (detailed program in the spectator’s guide, in a clarity so intense that it absorbs everything, available at the beginning of July) and three concerts that it was now impossible for anyone to distin- in the Sacred Music Cycle on 11, 18 and 22 July. guish the place’s perspectives, the proportions of things, the consistency of the objects. Any psy- chology and any subjectivity seem to be chal- lenged. It is there, in this path taken through the Église des Célestins that each spectator is pro- posed a question: what is his political, social place, faced with the malfunctioning of existence?

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Accompanied by Maurius von Mayenburg, associ- page 18 ate author at the Schaubühne of Berlin who trans- THOMAS OSTERMEIER / lated and adapted Shakespeare’s text, Thomas Ostermeier begins a journey through one of the SCHAUBÜHNE BERLIN brilliant English playwright’s key works. Inex- haustible Hamlet, the first of a series of tragedies Thomas Ostermeier made a noteworthy debut in written at the end of Elizabeth I’s reign. Here, on 1996 when he presented shows in a group of pre- the brink of paranoid madness, in the grip of his fabricated structures abutting the Deutsches The- visions, anxieties and incapacity to take a deci- ater, called the Baracke. Initially devoting himself to sion, to choose, to assume his status as a man and contemporary writings, he created an artistic col- crown prince, Hamlet plays with, hides from and lective around him that surprised and delighted the wants to manipulate those around him, concealing Berlin, then the European public. Appointed co- behind deliberately chosen madness a murderous director of the Schaubühne in Berlin in 1999, he plan supposed to save him, free him from the continued his work but alternated texts from the “putrid swamp” that surrounds him. Trapped by repertory – Büchner, Brecht, Ibsen… – and contem- the court, trapped by the political world, then porary authors – Marius von Mayenburg, Jon Fosse, becoming truly mad, he turns against himself the Biljana Srbljanovic, Sarah Kane, Lars Norén… Clas- weapons that ought to have served his liberation. sic or modern, these plays are always integrated Seeking honesty and truth in a universe where into the reality of a politically united but socially concealment and lies reign, Hamlet loses himself and culturally divided Germany, a fragmented in his powerlessness to act, in a growing dilemma Europe, confronted to with an attempt at a cultural that overwhelms him and condemns him to death. invasion from across the Atlantic, from a world that To refocus Shakespeare’s work on its hero inter- cannot erase either conflict or the barbarism of its preted by Lars Eidinger, Thomas Ostermeier has operating modes. In his artistic approach, Thomas selected a limited number of actors: six to play Ostermeier, who was the associate artist of the 58th about 20 roles, favouring the scenes in which Festival d’Avignon, continues to propose a theatre Shakespeare depicts, through the Danish court, a that is as close to man as possible. political system composed of murders, corruption At the Festival d’Avignon, Thomas Ostermeier pre- and passions that serve the desire for power. It is sented Man Equals Man by Bertolt Brecht, Below impossible, Shakespeare seems to say, to allow the Belt by Richard Dresser and Shopping and room for the complexity of thought when you Fucking by Mark Ravenhill in 1999, Dante’s Death must act, and act quickly, politically. It is this inabil- by Büchner in 2001, Woyzeck by Büchner in the ity to choose from the possibilities that makes Cour d’honneur of the Popes’ Palace, A Doll’s Hamlet unfit for power and inexorably leads him House by Ibsen, Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh, to his death, itself a herald of the collapse of the Request Concert by Franz Xaver Kroetz in 2004 Danish kingdom as it functioned at the time. Are and Blasted by Sarah Kane in 2005. we then so far from today’s questioning? Thomas Ostermeier asks himself and asks us. After Büch- It was in late 1601 or early 1602 that William ner and Sarah Kane, it is to Shakespeare that he Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote his Tragic History turns to provide us with food for thought in a here of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, inspired by extracts and now full of areas of shade, uncertainties and a of Tragic Histories taken from the Italian works of lack of landmarks. Bandello de François de Belleforest (1556). It was undoubtedly for the actor that he especially admired, Richard Burbage, that he wrote this tragedy, surely the most mysterious and Freudian, page 20 at the same time as he finished his most joyous MATHILDE MONNIER / comedy, Twelfth Night. PHILIPPE KATERINE

Hamlet Mathilde Monnier has an adventurous spirit. She BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE likes unexpected encounters and, for over a dozen 16 17 18 19 20 years, since she was appointed head of the Centre COUR D’HONNEUR OF THE POPES’ PALACE • 10 p.m. Chorégraphique National of Montpellier, Langue- estimated running time 2 hours 30 mins • show in German doc-Roussillon in 1994, she has had many of them. with French supertitles • 2008 premiere She has worked with personalities from diverse translated by Marius von Mayenburg artistic fields: the plastic artist Beverly Semmes directed by Thomas Ostermeier (Nuit [Night], in 1995), the composer David Moss (L’Atelier en pièces [The Workshop in Pieces], in

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1996), the author Christine Angot on two occa- and becomes a form that is both worrying and sions (Arrêtez, arrêtons, arrête, [Stop, Let’s Stop, maternal. Here, Katerine is surrounded by five Stop] in 1997, then the duo La Place du singe [The interpreters, each with his own stand microphone, Monkey’s Place] in 2005), the musician Heiner who move with him, against him, sing, dance, Goebbels (Les Lieux de là [Places from There], in repeat as a chorus or an echo, create confusion on 1999), the film-maker Claire Denis (for the film Vers the stage, sometimes get into a fight before calm- Mathilde), and the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, ing down, like good little boys. A shadow, loyal with whom she directed “danced lectures” and protective, follows Philippe Katerine in his (Allitérations, in 2002). Armed with these experi- gestures, his movements, his dancer’s flights as ences, she could come up to the expectations of well as his hesitations, played by Mathilde Monnier, Philippe Katerine, whom she met in 2005 and who who becomes the singer’s alter ego here. The “asked for and proposed her services”. The project seven “bodies-and-voices” on the stage tell a was to create a show using demos of songs from story, or rather stories, mixing music with dance, an album being produced, Robots après tout words with a staging as playful as it is panicky. It is (Robot After All). sometimes brilliant, with repetitions, revivals, At the Festival d’Avignon, Mathilde Monnier pre- movements, shifts from one body to another, one sented Pudique acide / Extasis in 1986, Ainsi de voice to another, one story to another, one side of suite (And so Forth) in 1992, L’Atelier en pièces the stage to the other. It is sometimes primal, (The Workshop in Pieces) in 1996, Les lieux de là in because the anxiety and hypochondria of the cen- 1999, La Place du singe and frère&sœur (Brother& tral character, who fastens on what comes back to Sister) in the Cour d’honneur of the Popes’ Palace him of his childhood, his life, his feelings of malaise in 2005. and dispossession, hypnotize all the dancer- singers, as if in a trance. The adventure is collec- Philippe Katerine is famous as an ultra-pop singer, tive: clothes are changed (black, yellow, pink, from a dandy in tight pink or yellow T-shirts, the author the leotard to the culottes…) and roles exchanged: of albums such as L’Éducation anglaise (The Eng- the dancers like to sing and the singer starts to lish Education, 1994), Mes mauvaises fréquenta- dance, each one encroaching on the other’s regis- tions (My Bad Company, 1996), Les Créatures (The ter with joyful appetite, while the show ventures Creatures), and 8e ciel (8th Heaven, 2002). He has onto a permanent tightrope, constantly threaten- also worked outside his natural milieu, especially ing to break. This is how Philippe Katerine and with film-makers, like the Larrieu brothers (Un Mathilde Monnier recount their adventures, homme, un vrai [A Man, a Real One]), Thierry between dances and songs, minor but real events Jousse (Nom de code [Code Name] : Sacha) and and fantasy scenes. the actress Anna Karina (Une histoire d’amour [A Love story] in 1999) and he has also filmed his self- mocking diary, Peau de cochon (Pigskin, 2003). He recently published Doublez votre mémoire page 22 (Double Your Memory), a graphic journal (2007). JOËL POMMERAT

(2008 Valley) 2008 vallée An author and director, Joël Pommerat works BY PHILIPPE KATERINE with the Compagnie Louis Brouillard that he AND MATHILDE MONNIER founded in 1990. Along with his team, he creates 24 25 26 every aspect of the plays he writes for his actors, COUR D’HONNEUR OF THE POPES’ PALACE • 10 p.m. persuaded that playwriting does not stop on the running time 1 hour 5 mins first day of rehearsals but, on the contrary, contin- show by and with Philippe Katerine and Mathilde Monnier ues through work with the actors, as much as through work on the scenography, lighting and Songs are sung, but it is not simply a concert; sound. Often described as “theatre of the inti- there are dances but they don’t look like a chore- mate”, Joël Pommerat’s theatre is also a “theatre ographic number; stories are told but this isn’t cin- of the real” deeply embedded in our time. It is pure ema. 2008 Valley is first of all a daydream born 30 meticulous craftsmanship in which the gesture’s years ago, in 1978, when Philippe Katerine was a precision matches the words’ exactness to create small boy, a form of science fiction near and far and maintain a constant link between the stage that let him imagine sounds, words, extrapolations and the audience. from concrete events and very real situations of Since 1990, through 15 plays – including Des suées his future life. The valley now exists thanks to his (Sweat), Pôles, Treize étroites têtes (Thirteen Nar- meeting with Mathilde Moonier and takes on the row Heads), Mon ami (My Friend), Grâce à mes colour of a yellow carpet that gradually thickens, yeux (Thanks to My Eyes) and D’une seule main

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(With a Single Hand) – Joël Pommerat and his company have been following this path, deepen- page 24 ing an original and rigorous approach that, GUY CASSIERS / episode after episode, makes up a familiar and mysterious theatre universe, woven of unforget- TONEELHUIS table images. He presented Au Monde (In the World), Les From his graphic arts studies, Guy Cassiers has Marchands (The Merchants) and Le Petit Chap- retained the desire to make images, using all the eron rouge (Little Red Riding Hood) at the Festival new media and in particular video. Preferring to d’Avignon in 2006. work on literary adaptations, he has travelled through the works of Marguerite Duras, Salman Rushdie, Marcel Proust and Jeroen Brouwers. In (I Tremble [1 and 2]) Je tremble (1et 2) atypical venues, with actors, plastic artists and BY JOËL POMMERAT scenographers, he has created shows, between 19 20 21 • 10 p.m. the Netherlands and Flemish Belgium, whose cen- 23 24 25 26 • 5 p.m. tre of gravity is often memory. Director of the RO OPÉRA-THÉÂTRE • estimated running time 2 hours Theater of Rotterdam from 1998 to 2006, he was 50 mins including intermission • 2008 premiere appointed director, in 2006, of the Toneelhuis in written and directed by Joël Pommerat Antwerp, which he runs with six creators whom he chose, including Benjamin Verdonck and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, also invited to the Festival d’Avignon A genuine “theatre of illusion”, Joël Pommerat’s this year. shows marvellously play on light and shadows, Guy Cassiers presented Sunken Red by Jeroen natural voices and playback, to study man in his Brouwers in 2006 and Mefisto for ever by Tom most immediate, most naked, most troubling real- Lanoye in 2007 at the Festival d’Avignon. ity. After the premiere of I tremble (1) in 2007, he is now premiering the second part of this show and Jeroen Olyslaegers was a film critic, radio chroni- undertaking a journey made up of brief moments, cler and actor. He now writes plays. brief instants, songs, stories in a world that could A playwright at the Toneelhuis, Erwin Jans teaches be believed devoted to entertainment, that could at the university, runs the review Freespace be that of the cabaret. But in front of and behind Nieuwzuid and publishes in various periodicals. the changing red, gold and silver curtain, a cere- monial is built in which sequins and glitter rapidly A novelist, poet, lecturer, columnist and play- fade to leave room for the words of those who wright, Tom Lanoye fights against the corruption have come to tell us the truth about their lives. The of minds in a region where the extreme right is a inventor of theatre anthropology, Jöel Pommerat genuine danger. He became known through his carries us once again into the entrails of humanity adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedies in a single with a host of biographical narrations, real or fan- play. He has recently written Mamma Medea, Fort tasy, about those we come across, sometimes see- Europa and Mefisto for ever. ing them but never hearing them: “the woman in bad shape”, “the richest man in the world”, “the (Belladonna) man who didn’t exist”, “the very pregnant Wolfskers BY JEROEN OLYSLAEGERS woman”, “the very old woman” and so on. Here, there is no denunciation, no judgement, no moral- 5 6 7 8 ity but contact with the intimate, all the stronger OPÉRA-THÉÂTRE • 5 p.m. • running time 2 hours 30 mins and more disturbing as it is placed in a real-life sit- show in Dutch with French supertitles • premiere in France uation in a world of dreams and illusions. In its directed by Guy Cassiers fragmentation, this work deeply touches our fasci- nation for the images which have invaded us, In Wolfskers, the second part of his “Triptych of beautiful images that conceal a not so beautiful Power”, Guy Cassiers, after the first part, Mefisto reality, as Joël Pommerat multiples the sequences for ever, takes his inspiration from three scripts by like a magician or illusionist. Are we seeing a the Russian film-maker Alexander Sokurov: Tau- cabaret show, vaudeville, a new form of tragedy? rus, Moloch and The Sun. A particular day in the It is unquestionably all that, combined, without life of three particular men, three symbols of any other certainty than saying to oneself that absolute power that crushes individuals: Lenin, Jöel Pommerat and his remarkable actors allow us Hitler and Hirohito. The first, weakened, awaits to be at the heart of theatre art since we are “in Stalin to attempt one last time to deprive him of the story without being in the anecdote”. his succession; the second, waiting for his favourite artist, the architect Albert Speer, at the

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moment of his first defeats in Russia; Hirohito, the Bush declared that the war in Iraq was “officially emperor-god of Japan, awaiting the American over”. The alexandrines in which Tom Lanoye’s general MacArthur, the day after Hiroshima… version of the Trojan War flows alternate with the Three men who wanted to incarnate a people, sober prose of a diary that describes daily life in a three living myths who succeeded in dramatizing devastated city. In this way, Atropa allows the vic- their life to become heroes supposed to attain tims of conflictual violence to speak, but beyond immortality. It is at the moment when power is any facile emotion, it dissects the age-old reason- crumbling, at the moment when powerlessness ing of war itself. emerges that they are presented to us, sur- rounded by those close to them. They hold forth on the future of “their” world without realizing that they have become prisoners of their fantasies. page 26 Everything begins to split apart, lethargy creeps IVO VAN HOVE / over them, power acting as a slow-release poison, this “belladonna” (wolfskers in Flemish) leads TONEELGROEP them to destruction. Guy Cassiers is a master at AMSTERDAM creating this atmosphere of dereliction, loss of self, by putting his talented actors at the centre of a fascinating set and videographic construction Born in Belgium in 1958, Ivo van Hove staged his that is extraordinarily effective as it allows us to be own texts starting in 1981 before becoming the both in the present of the actions and in the men- artistic director of different theatre troupes (AKT, tal universe of the protagonists. AKT-Vertikaal, De Tijd). In 1990, he became direc- tor of the Zuidelijk Toneel which he left in 2001 to become the director of the Toneelgroep Amster- Atropa La Vengeance de la paix dam. His stagings were presented at the Edinburgh (Atropa The Vengeance of Peace) Festival, the Venice Biennial, the Holland Festival BY TOM LANOYE (whose artistic director he was from 1997 to 2004) 11 12 13 14 but also in Hamburg, Lisbon, Verona, Hanover, OPÉRA-THÉÂTRE • 5 p.m. • estimated running time 2 hours Porto, Rome, Créteil, Stuttgart and New York. He show in Dutch with French supertitles • 2008 premiere has staged over 60 plays travelling through the directed by Guy Cassiers universe of Shakespeare (Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet…), How can you not question Greek tragedy when Marguerite Duras, Bernard-Marie Koltès, Maxime you are interested in the relationship between art Gorki, Frank Wedekind, Eugene O’Neill, Sophocles, and power? Atropa, the part that closes the trip- Euripides, Albert Camus, Tennessee Williams, Tony tych, returns to the mother of all wars, the unfortu- Kushner, John Cassavetes,… looking in classic nately famous Trojan War. Tom Lanoye and Guy works as well as contemporary ones that talk Cassiers have adapted the Greek tragedies, focus- about our period, that can answer our immediate ing on Agamemnon, the commander of the as well as our timeless questions. He has been a Greeks, and the women whom he has made vic- professor at the Antwerp Conservatory since 1984 tims. His sister-in-law Helen, who provides him and also became interested in opera, presenting with the excuse to start a war. His daughter Iphige- Lulu by Alban Berg in 1999, then The Makropoulus nia, whom he sacrifices to guarantee favourable Affair by Leoˇs Janáˇcek, Iolanta by Tchaikovsky and winds for his fleet. His wife Clytemnestra whose Wagner’s Ring cycle in 2006-2008. pleas he refuses to listen to. And lastly, three Tro- jan women (Hecuba, Cassandra and Andromache) Very much in fashion during the Elizabethan whose husbands, brothers and sons he kills. In a period, the heros of antique Rome also inspired new, powerful and unexpected ending, all these William Shakespeare (1564-1616) who had his his- women defy Agamemnon and show him the ulti- torical drama Julius Caesar staged in London in mate failure of his power. Although copied almost 1599, inspired by Plutarch’s work Parallel Lives on word for word from George W. Bush and Donald the Greeks and Romans. Two Roman tragedies fol- Rumsfeld’s speeches, Agamemnon’s arguments lowed, Anthony and Cleopatra in 1606 and Cori- are timeless: the logic of war prevails whatever the olanus in 1607, also inspired by Plutarch. At the era. The fall of Troy, known in antiquity as the “city same period, Shakespeare staged Macbeth and of towers” represents the attack on Manhattan as King Lear. much as the bombings of Baghdad and Bassora. But here, this logic is shaken by fragments of the electronic diary of Riverbend, a young Iraqi woman who has kept a Web blog since President

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Tragédies romaines page 28 Coriolan / Jules César / Antoine et Cléopâtre (Roman tragedies, Coriolanus / Julius Caesar / STANISLAS NORDEY Anthony and Cleopatra) BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE It was at Véronique Nordey’s drama course that 12 13 14 Stanislas Nordey began his training as an actor, GYMNASE GÉRARD PHILIPE • 4 p.m. which he continued at the Conservatoire National running time 6 hours including breaks • show in Dutch Supérieur d’Art Dramatique of Paris. He had with French supertitles • food and beverages at the already directed actors in these two structures venue during the show • premiere in France before presenting his first work as a professional directed by Ivo van Hove director with The Dispute by Marivaux in 1988. An ardent supporter of collective work in a troupe, he Ivo van Hove’s ambitious and coherent project was, with his company, associate artist at the presents three Roman tragedies by Shakespeare, Théâtre Gérard-Philipe in Saint-Denis from 1991 to Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Anthony and 1995, before joining, still with his troupe of 12 Cleopatra, to question politics through three actors, the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre, at adventures that present the story and the tragic the request of Jean-Pierre Vincent, who brought fates of men and women confronted with power. him into artistic direction. In 1998, he was In the same way as Shakespeare read Plutarch and appointed director of the Théâtre Gérard-Philipe his lives of illustrious men to analyze, scrutinize in Saint-Denis, which he left in 2001 to join the and examine as closely as possible the functioning Théâtre National de Bretagne as pedagogic direc- of political power, Ivo van Hove borrows from tor of the school, then starting in 2002, as associ- Shakespeare to revive our reflection on what may ate artist. Considering himself someone who seem immutable in this power’s practices. Ambi- directed actors rather than a stage director, he tion, rivalry, the certainty of being the providential worked successively on contemporary and classic man or the supreme saviour, the demagogy inher- authors such as Pasolini, Marivaux, Bernard-Marie ent in democracy, the necessity of reductive com- Koltès, Manfred Karge, Hervé Guibert, Jean Genet, munication, the rejection of the evolution of forms Heiner Müller, Shakespeare, Didier-Georges Gabily, of power, the chronic impotence hidden in lyrical Jean-Luc Lagarce, Feydeau, Martin Crimp, August speeches, the repression of the intimate are Stramm, Wajdi Mouawad, Fausto Paravidino and themes that appear in these Shakespearean Falk Richter. He staged Seven Seconds (In God We tragedies that Ivo van Hove puts in the centre of Trust) and Nothing Hurts by Richter before pro- our contemporary world, in places of power as we posing a montage based on Das System for the know them, international conference rooms or tel- Festival d’Avignon. He has also continued his work evision studios. Extremely close to the original as an actor, notably with Christine Le Tailleur in text, he communicates these questions so close to Philosophy in the Bedroom by Marquis de Sade those that we can formulate on our democratic and acts with Valérie Dréville in the staging of systems. The idea here is not to judge but to ana- Thérèse the Philosopher by Anatoli Vassiliev. lyze mechanisms while remaining on a human At the Festival d’Avignon, Stanislas Nordey pre- scale. Coriolanus, the character who rejects sented Vole mon dragon (Fly my Dragon) by democracy by denying the weight of the common Hervé Guibert in 1994, Contention – La Dispute et people, Brutus who wants to save democracy by autres bestioles (Contention – The Dispute and killing the demagogue Caesar, Anthony who can Other Tiny Beasties) by Didier-Georges Gabily in no longer get out of the imbroglio mixing his polit- 1997 and was scheduled to present Attempts on ical future with his love life, are these heroes out of Her Life by Martin Crimp in 2003. Roman history so far from us today? Ivo van Hove, recounting these moments in history today, Born in 1969 in Hamburg, Falk Richter studied refuses to accept the idea that politics is only directing there and began working at the Schau- manipulation out of reach of citizens’ free choice. spielhaus as an author, translator and director. He In a Europe prey to doubt, political correctness, then joined the Schaubühne in Berlin, where since pseudo-democratic populism, communication 2006 he has been associate director. He staged that often replaces action, he brilliantly uses the plays in different theatres by contemporary theatre and modern technology means to make it authors such as Harold Pinter, Marc Ravenhill, an agora, that very core of democracy. Putting the Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill, Martin Crimp and Jon spectator in the theatre or on the stage, he invites Fosse, but also more classic authors like Chekhov us to look in another way at this epic, living, exalt- and Shakespeare, and his own texts, including ing theatre that has us hear the voices of the past Section in 1996 and Nothing Hurts in 1999. His to enlighten the present and, perhaps, the future. most recent plays, brought together under the

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term Das System, are part of a global project including Electronic City, Seven Seconds (In God page 30 We Trust) and Under Ice. For Falk Richter, each ARTHUR NAUZYCIEL play is written with an artistic team composed of professional or amateur actors during a period of four to six months. It is performed one to five After studying plastic arts and cinema, Arthur times in the place where the rehearsals them- Nauzyciel was, from 1986 to 1989, a student at the selves are held. These presentations can integrate school of the Théâtre National de Chaillot run by films, video, music, lectures, debates, documen- Antoine Vitez. He then acted under the directors tary theatre… Éric Vigner, Alain Françon, Jacques Nichet, Philippe Clévenot and Tsai Ming Liang. An associ- ate artist at the CDDB – Théâtre de Lorient, the (The system) Das System first play that he directed, in 1999, The Imaginary BY FALK RICHTER Invalid or Molière’s Silence after Molière and Gio- 13 14 15 16 18 19 20 vanni Macchia, premiered there and has been SALLE BENOÎT-XII • 3 p.m. • running time to come revived regularly in France and abroad. In 2003, he 2008 premiere premiered Happy Days with Marilù Marini, pre- translated by Anne Monfort sented in France and Buenos Aires. In 2004, he direction and scenography by Stanislas Nordey brought Thomas Bernhard into the repertory of the Comédie-Française staging Heroes Square. He By working on Falk Richter’s plays, Stanislas regularly works in the United States where he pre- Nordey continues his research on contemporary miered, in Atlanta, Black Battles with Dogs (2001) political theatre, a theatre that must be the place and Roberto Zucco (2004) by Bernard-Marie for truth, confronted with the lies widely unloaded Koltès and, in Boston, Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh by the media, manipulators sometimes manipu- (2007) and Julius Caesar by Shakespeare (2008). lated, as when the second Iraq War spread out. Invited to Iceland in 2007, he presented The Image Through fragments of plays, monologues or dia- by Samuel Beckett with the dancer Damien Jalet logues, extracts from the author’s journal, Stanis- and will premiere Le Musée de la mer (The Sea las Nordey composes “his” Falk Richter as Falk Museum) by Marie Darrieussecq there in 2009. His Richter composes “his” system. Faced with the theatre bears witness to his determination to have state of the world as it is shown to us, the images, the texts heard as close as possible to their mean- ruses and myths must be put in perspective to ing, as close as possible to the actor’s intimacy. make reality appear. With Das System, the idea is, Since June 2007, he has been the director of the through relatively short, sometimes tragic, often Centre dramatique national Orléans-Loiret-Centre. humorous and whimsical texts, to raise critical At the Festival d’Avignon, Arthur Nauzyciel played questions on our incredible facility for accepting in A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream directed by the society of the spectacle as it is spread across Jérôme Savary in 1990, with Valérie Dréville in War our small luminous screens and penetrates the Plays directed by Alain Françon in 1994, in Bran- most intimate part of our daily lives. Documentary cusi contre États-Unis, un procès historique 1928 theatre to make us think, theatre of the mastery of (Brancusi against The United States, a Historic Trial style and writing, theatre of the urgency of the 1928) directed by Éric Vigner in 1996 and Life and jolt, theatre of the satire of an increasingly mini- Death of King Jean directed by Laurent Pelly in malist coded language, theatre of the pamphlet – 1998. He presented Black Battles with Dogs at the with Falk Richter’s texts we are shaken, disturbed, Festival in 2006. amused, never indifferent. It is not just spectators that Stanislas Nordey summons to follow in Falk Born on January 13, 1898 in Denmark, orphaned at Richter’s footsteps but citizens of the world to the age of 5, Kaj Munk was adopted in 1916 by dis- whom he offers this work, intended as a means of tant relatives. He became a pastor in 1924 in a rural tearing away the thicker and thicker veil of the parish of western Jutland. A complex personality, accumulated counter-truths that prevent us from he was a defender of fascist ideas in the 1930s really seeing the history that we are in the process before becoming, after the first anti-Semitic per- of living. By putting his actors in a real-life situa- secutions that followed Denmark’s invasion in tion, more than putting them on stage, he seeks 1940, a ferocious opponent of Nazism. On the the exactitude of the words that are addressed Gestapo's orders, he was arrested and executed and the strength of the physical engagement on on January 4, 1944. At the age of 19, he began his the stage to have this powerful voice heard, the literary work, which made him one of the greatest voice of an author who considers himself Danish poets, and he was the author of about extremely close to the world around us. 30 plays that were performed in all the major Scandinavian theatres. Ordet, written in 1925, was

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adapted for the cinema by Carl Theodor Dreyer the play by Kaj Munk, who considers the stage as in 1955. the perfect place for dreams and miracles.

The translation of Ordet is Marie Darrieussecq’s and first work for the theatre. An author, notably of Précisions sur les vagues #2 Truismes (Truisms), Naissance des fantômes (Birth (Precisions on the Waves #2) of Ghosts), Précisions sur les vagues (Precisions 4-26 July • ÉCOLE D’ART on the Waves) and White, published by P.O.L édi- opening hours 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. • free admission tions, her novel Tom est mort (Tom Is Dead) was proposed by Célia Houdart on a text by Marie Darrieussecq the subject of a reading directed by Arthur Nauzy- ciel at the Festival d’Avignon 2007. She wrote her with the ccas, in the framework of the Counter-current first play, Le Musée de la mer (The Sea Museum) Le Moindre des mondes DE SJÓN for him. She is associate author at the Centre Dra- 18 July • ROND-POINT DE LA BARTHELASSE • 7 p.m. matique National Orléans-Loiret-Centre. free admission reading directed by Arthur Nauzyciel Ordet (The Word) L’Incarnation du Verbe BY KAJ MUNK (The Incarnation of the Word) 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 14 July • COLLÉGIALE SAINT-PIERRE D’AVIGNON • 6 p.m. CLOÎTRE DES CARMES • 10 p.m. Roman polyphonies of the 11th and 12th centuries estimated running time 2 hours • 2008 premiere Ensemble Organum directed by Marcel Pérès directed by Arthur Nauzyciel translated and adapted by Marie Darrieussecq and Arthur Nauzyciel page 32 Effaced, concealed behind Carl Theodor Dreyer’s CLAIRE LASNE mythic film, Kaj Munk’s most renowned play, Ordet (“the word” in Danish) seems today like a play at DARCUEIL the limits of mysticism and as a tremendous reflection on the forces of life which, in each First studying at the Ensatt – École de la Rue human existence, are set against the forces of Blanche – then at the Conservatoire National death. We must continue to live, fight, love… to not Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, where her teachers be inconsolable faced with the inexorable out- were Philippe Adrien, Bernard Dort, Mario Gonza- come. The pastor Munk does not limit his words as lès, Jean-Christian Grinevald, Jack Garfein and an author to those of the Gospels. He also makes Stuart Seide, Claire Lasne Darcueil worked as an purely human words, of love, doubt, anxiety and actress with Lucien Melki, Marcel Bozonnet, hope come out of the mouths of his Danish peas- Isabelle Janier, Marc Zammit, Anne Torrès, Jean- ants. He contrasts them in a theatre construction Paul Wenzel and Gilberte Tsaï… She then became a that brings suspense to the forefront, that ravels director and premiered five plays by the author and unravels the conflicts permitting all the char- Mohamed Rouabhi with whom she founded the acters to express their contrasting convictions. company Les Acharnés. In 1992, it was Les There is no right word but strong words, the Acharnés (The Relentless) then Les Fragments de words of those who believe and the words of Kaposi (1994), Ma petite vie de rien du tout (My those who can no longer do so, the words of those Little Nothing Life, 1996), Jérémie Fischer (show who hope and the words of those who have lost all for a young public, 1997) and Les Nouveaux Bâtis- hope… In this new translation by Marie Darieussecq seurs (The New Builders, 1997). In 1996, she began and Arthur Nauzyciel, we are spellbound by the to take an interest in the works of Anton Chekhov original view that Kaj Munk had on the family, on all of whose plays she decided to stage in order. belief and, more than anything, on women. We She presented The Worthless Fellow Platonov, hear the doubt that crosses minds, we are trou- then in 1999 Ivanov 1942-1999 (associating bled and moved by the expression of an amorous François Truffaut with Anton Chekhov), The Wood desire so frankly expressed. Arthur Nauzyciel Demon in 2002 and now The Seagull. Appointed returns to the Festival d’Avignon still convinced co-director with the late Laurent Darcueil, of the that the stage is the place where what shatters Centre dramatique Poitou-Charentes in 1998, she man, what raises him up, what makes him “alive” refused to stage her works in a stationary venue; and combative may be spoken, provided that the Centre purchased a big-top. She organized there is a strong, unique, lively language that the with Vincent Gatel, as an interval between sea- actors must appropriate to the point of being sons, a Printemps chapiteau which had its eighth physically inhabited by it. All of this constitutes edition in 2007. Stopping in the smallest villages,

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sometimes including amateur actors, using small and formats invented by the Centre’s actors, this Print- with the CCAS, in the framework of the Counter-current emps chapiteau fertilizes the entire region where L’Ours & Des méfaits du tabac Claire Lasne Darcueil does theatre. (The Boor & On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco) Claire Lasne Darcueil presented, at the Festival BY ANTON CHEKHOV d’Avignon, Dom Juan by Molière and The Wood 14 July • ROND-POINT DE LA BARTHELASSE • 11.15 p.m. Demon by Chekhov in 2002, and the big-top was free admission set up in Rasteau with Princes et Princesses directed by Arlette Bonnard with Alain Enjary, (Princes and Princesses) by Michel Ocelot and Claire Lasne Darcueil and Richard Sammut Joyeux anniversaire (Happy Birthday) in 2004. In 2006, she directed a cycle of readings of French texts there with Richard Sammut. page 34 La Mouette (The Seagull) BY ANTON CHEKHOV DANIEL JEANNETEAU 19 20 22 23 24 25 & MARIE-CHRISTINE CLOÎTRE DES CARMES • 9 p.m. SOMA running time 2 hours 20 mins translated by André Markowicz and Françoise Morvan directed by Claire Lasne Darcueil A student at the École Supérieure des Arts Déco- ratifs of Strasbourg, then the Théâtre National de Claire Lasne Darcueil has taken a kind of parallel Strasbourg school, Daniel Jeanneteau became, in journey with the works of Anton Chekhov (1860- 1989, the scenographer for the director Claude 1904). Chronologically following the plays written Régy for whom he did, for over 15 years, most of his by this absolute master of the Russian theatre scenographies. At the same time, he conceived (Platonov, Ivanov, The Wood Demon), she is now scenographies for the theatre and dance for tackling The Seagull, the triumphal success of the Catherine Diverrès, Gérard Desarthe, Éric Lacas- Moscow Art Theatre in 1898, two years after its cade, Charles Tordjman, Jean-Claude Gallotta, premiere in Saint Petersburg. An inexhaustible Alain Ollivier, Marcel Bozonnet, Jean-Baptiste Sas- work that is fascinating because of the depth of tre, Trisha Brown… After having co-produced two the analyses, the many entangled themes, the ten- shows on the work of Fernando Pessoa along with derness with which each character is portrayed… Clotilde Mollet and Hervé Pierre, he decided to Claire Lasne Darcueil has taken Chekhov’s initial direct his own shows accompanied by Marie-Chris- version, the one that takes the time to go to the tine Soma. Starting in 2001, he journeyed through very depth of the behaviours, introspection, pain, the universes of Racine (Iphigénie), Strindberg (The hopes and despair of the characters who are Ghost Sonata), Sarah Kane (Blasted), Martin Crimp never judged by an author who seems to be pres- and George Benjamin (for their opera Into the Little ent in each of them, and not only in the couple Hill) and Bulgakov (Adam and Eve). His collabora- formed by the diametrically opposed writers, Trig- tion with Marie-Christine Soma evolved towards a orin and Treplev. Nina, an amorous innocent total partnership in theatre creation and directing. betrayed by the man she loves, a mother bearing As pedagogues, they have just staged Les Assas- the death of her child, an actress accepting the sins de la charbonnière (The Coalwoman’s Assas- failure of her ambitions, becomes, in Claire Lasne sins) after Labiche and Kafka with the students of Darcueil’s staging, a being of astonishing moder- group 37 at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg nity as she goes “alone” on the pursuit of a labori- school. Associate director at the Théâtre Gérard- ous existence, rejecting the powerlessness to live Philipe of Saint-Denis from 2002 to 2007 then at and the desperate irony that seem the common the Espace Malraux of Chambéry and the Maison denominators of those who surround her. Staying de la Culture of Amiens, he has just been appointed extraordinarily close to Chekhov’s words and director of the Studio-Théâtre of Vitry. rhythms, his silences, his repetitions, emotion that skims the surface, laughter that dies in the throat, Marie-Christine Soma holds a bachelor’s degree in the gentleness and lightness that conceal the classical literature and a master’s in philosophy. anguish and despair that lurk about must be dis- After being lighting engineer at the Théâtre de la covered. It is a contained approach, all subtlety Criée in Marseille, she devoted herself to creation and sincerity, that appears in this work character- starting in 1985. She assisted Henri Alekan then ized by extreme faithfulness and dazzling inven- Dominique Bruguière for the premiere of Time and tiveness, enveloped in original music composed the Room by Botho Strauss directed by Patrice by Alexandros Markeas. Chéreau. Working both for the theatre and dance,

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she has created the lighting for shows by struction combining transparency and light like a Geneviève Sorin, Alain Fourneau, Marie Vayssière, scientific laboratory. To have us follow the pro- François Rancillac, Jean-Claude Gallotta, Jean- gression of thoughts that inhabit his characters, Paul Delore, Jérôme Deschamps, Jacques Vincey, August Stramm invented a rigorous style based Michel Cerda, Éric Vigner, Arthur Nauzyciel, on a radical economy of words, a style that Catherine Diverrès… Since 2001, she has been evolves through the three plays, presented here in Daniel Jeanneteau’s artistic collaborator for all the the chronological order in which they were writ- shows whose staging they now handle together. ten. From the extraverted naturalism of The Rudi- mentary System to the cold expressionism of Born in Münster in 1874 into a modest family, Forces by way of the lyric and poetic symbolism, August Stramm was first destined for theology close to Maeterlinck, of The Bride of the Moor, before entering the German Post Office Ministry in August Stramm wrote theatre to be acted, theatre 1893, in which he carved out his career, becoming for actors in which the slightest gesture, precisely an inspector in 1909. Starting in 1903 he concur- inserted in very rich didascalia, is often more rently had a career as a writer, publishing eight expressive than the words. We discover an author short plays, three poetry collections, two long who digs deep into his characters’ unconscious, poems and two prose texts. His first work Émigrés who expresses, in a unique manner, the halting is an essay that was followed by his first play The and constantly doubting thinking of man held in Peasants. It was after 1909 that he successively the labyrinth of his passions, his frustrations and wrote, apart from poems, The Sacrifice, The Hus- his impotence. After Sarah Kane and Bulgakov, band and The Sterile, then The Rudimentary Sys- Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma con- tem (1912), Sancta Susanna and The Bride of the tinue along their theatre path with an author Moor (1913). He had problems finding a publisher whose freedom they admire both for its form – and it was his meeting in 1914 with Herwath each text pushes the possibilities of expression a Walden (director of the review Der Sturm) that little bit further back – and for the opening of made it possible for his works to be published. meaning, Stramm having had the courage, at an Before being mobilized in August 1914, he wrote extreme moment of his existence, to consider life The Last, Waiting, Awakening and the draft of with complete lucidity. A journey to go, outside Forces, which he finished while on leave in January any soothing pity, as near as possible to what is 1915. After having been in trench warfare in Alsace, built and destroyed between men when social then in the Somme, he was sent to the Russian conventions explode, when moral laws can no front in April 1915. He died there on September 1st, longer be applied, when civilized man, a prisoner the last combatant in his company, after having of himself, forgets himself and voluntarily or prepared a collection of poems, Thou / Love unconsciously exposes himself. Poems and finishing his last play Destiny.

Feux (Fires) page 36 Rudimentaire / La Fiancée des landes / Forces JAN FABRE (The Rudimentary System / The Bride of the Moor / Forces) BY AUGUST STRAMM Jan Fabre is an artist who constantly questions 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 15 the vitality of the human being and wonders GYMNASE AUBANEL • 6 p.m. • estimated running time about the place of art and the artist in our world. 2 hours 40 mins • 2008 premiere He explores, to its very limits, the artist’s body, soul french text by Huguette and René Radrizzani and visions. Inspired by art history, from the Flem- direction, scenography and lighting Daniel Jeanneteau ish primitives to Marcel Duchamp, from the Greek and Marie-Christine Soma theatre to Antonin Artaud, he expresses himself equally through drawing, sculpture, writing and drama in which theatre and dance are combined Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma in the interpreters’ bodies. invite us to discover a German author little known A plastic artist, he is the author of a prolific and in France. Three short plays, three incisive views protean body of work: drawings, monochromes, on human passions, three immediate direct obser- sculptures, photographs, performances. He has vations of the desires and impulses of individuals invested a host of venuesnot the least of which the confronted with every tropism… Neither complai- Louvre, which devoted a major exhibition to him sance nor moral judgement, just great lucidity on this spring. For the last few years, his “base camp” human behaviours, dissected with a scalpel, has been the Troubleyn in Antwerp, his projects’ examined under a magnifying glass in a set con- creation centre.

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On the stage, his shows, whether danced or acted, the subject of speculation today. The show mixes whether accompanied by music or texts (which he autobiographical reminiscences, since it raises often writes himself), have compelled recognition questions and looks back on the death of the for over 20 years as one of the most radical artist’s own mother, precise and intense choreo- sources of the revival of contemporary theatre. graphic work with Ivana Jozic and a text written They are stagings of the body and its excesses, by Jan Fabre celebrating the very act of jumping appearances and their distortions, moods and into the unknown and the dispersion of the body their palpitations, that propose a plastic of satura- in matter as an eminently poetic undertaking. Jan tion that can shock and fascinate, bring about Fabre wanted this type of withdrawal, leaving it up adhesion or rejection. He likes to call his actors to Ivana Jozic to appear alone, embodying his “warriors of beauty”, carried along to the excess of writing and presence, whirling on the stage like a images and dreams. Jan Fabre, however, shows light but tragic spirit, born from the vision of a deep tenderness towards the human being and his dying mother and the imagination of a man in love weaknesses. From monologues (Elle était et elle suddenly killing himself. est, même, Étant donnés [She Was and She Is, Even]) or intimate solos designed specifically for his interpreters (Quando l’uomo principale è una donna, L’Ange de la mort [Angel of Death]) to his page 38 flamboyant group pieces (recently, Requiem pour ALVIS HERMANIS une métamorphose [Requiem for a Metamorpho- sis] premiered at the 2007 Salzburg Festival), Jan Fabre’s approach retains a taste for childhood and Alvis Hermanis has run the New Theatre of Riga, its games. in Latvia, for nearly 10 years. At the age of 42, he Jan Fabre, who was associate artist of the 59th was at the head of this state institution, provided Festival in 2005, presented Das glas im kopf wird with a permanent troupe of 25 actors, part of vom glas in 1988, My Movements Are Alone Like whose programming is devoted to the classic Street Dogs in 2000, Je suis sang (I Am Blood) repertory, especially German and Russian authors. and the plastic installation Umbraculum in 2001, He also stages the most contemporary texts, such L’Ange de la mort in 2004 and, in 2005, L’Histoire as Sonia by the Russian author Tatiana Tolstaia, as des larmes (History of Tears) and Je suis sang in well as shows inspired by elements of concrete the Cour d’honneur of the Popes’ Palace, L’Em- life, such as Long Life, unquestionably his most pereur de la perte (The Emperor of Perdition) and well-known creation, a play that benefited from an Le Roi du plagiat as well as an exhibition at La Mai- extensive international tour and that proposes a son Jean Vilar, titled For intérieur (Inner Depths). series of melancholic variations based on the life of old people and their very specific vision of the world. Alvis Hermanis and the New Theatre of Another sleepy dusty Riga’s shows are most often personal and collec- delta day tive creations with the actors, arising from differ- 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 15 16 ent sources of inspiration, their own experience, CHAPELLE DES PÉNITENTS BLANCS • 3 p.m. literature such as Ice by Vladimir Sorokin or the running time to come • 2008 premiere Simon and Garfunkel album The Sound of Silence. choreography Jan Fabre and Ivana Jozic Alvis Hermanis’s theatre illustrates an inventive conception, text, scenography by Jan Fabre form of synthesis between two contradictory tra- ditions: Germanic dramaturgy – structured, thought-out, abstract, reasoned –, and Russian Three years after having been associate artist, Jan theatre – offbeat, splintered, disorderly, some- Fabre returns to the Festival with Another sleepy times encumbered with a certain madness. Her- dusty delta day, a solo danced by Ivana Jozic, one manis’s work with his actors, a vital part of his of his muses, a dancer of Croatian origin, with approach, seems constantly pulled between these whom the Flemish director has been working for two lines. several years, having already created L’Ange de la mort together in 2003. For this return, he pro- Tatiana Tolstaia was born in 1951 in Saint Peters- poses a work based on the great leap into the burg. She comes from a family with a rich literary void, death, the afterlife. The title Another sleepy tradition. After studying at the state university of dusty delta day takes its inspiration from the hit Leningrad, she moved to Moscow where she song Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry, written in worked in a publishing firm before devoting her- 1967 about a young man who committed suicide self completely to writing. As a journalist, Tatiana by jumping off a bridge. The opening line of this Tolstaia wrote about literature but also about cur- rather mysterious country and western song is still rent events in Russia. Today, she lives and works in

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both the United States, where she teaches in a uni- the compromises of the conventional and institu- versity, and Russia. She is considered one of the tional theatre. Working many months on his greatest contemporary Russian writers. shows, starting with improvisations, stressing the physical stagecraft that engages the entire actor in his communication, accepting the constraints of Sonia a relatively cramped venue, mixing amateur and BY TATIANA TOLSTAIA professional actors, Sportivo Teatral has become 5 6 7 8 9 the indispensable place for critical, polemic and SALLE BENOÎT-XII • 3 p.m. • running time 1 hour 40 mins poetic theatre. Shows that are emblematic of this show in Russian with French supertitles • premiere in France work: Postales argentinas (1989), El Corte (1996), directed by Alvis Hermanis De mal en peor (2005) and La Pesca (Fishing, 2008), should not conceal the adventures carried Two men with a rather coarse appearance enter a out with Eduardo Pavlovsky (Teleranas, 1985), faded apartment, playing characters with dazzling Beckett (La Ultima Cinta Magnetica, 1986 and virtuosity. One transforms himself into Sonia, a Krapp’s Last Tape, 2000), Shakespeare (Hamlet, woman full of contrasts, even contradictions: a 1991), Roberto Arlt (El Pecado que no se puede dreamer, solitary, romantic, innocent and naïve, nombrar [The Unnamed Sin], 1999) and Ibsen but also a housewife, scouring the dishes, baking (Hedda Gabler, 2007). At the Festival d’Avignon, her cakes, ready for any sacrifice. The other is a Ricardo Bartís presented El Pecado que no se kind of distinctly real and imaginary projection of puede nombrar by Robert Arlt in 1999 and was the men she hasn’t had, but also the incarnation of supposed to present Donde más duele (There that cruel society that manipulates her, harms her Where It Hurts the Most) in 2003. and takes her right to despair to melodrama. Fem- ininity is omnipresent whereas the woman is, how- (Fishing) ever, not on the stage. It is the determination to La Pesca BY RICARDO BARTÍS live in a dream, while courageously confronting the ordinariness and misery of existence that this 12 13 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 show portrays. Its strength stems from its radical GYMNASE PAUL GIERA • 5 p.m. simplicity: two men to play the entire world, in the estimated running time 1 hour 15 mins style of Beckett, who go from one register to show in Spanish with French supertitles • 2008 premiere another with amazing ease – from the burlesque direction and scenography by Ricardo Bartís to the tragic, from the humorous to the pathetic, from the dream of love to the compelling feeling A private setting for three men of two different of death –, and ordinary, banal sets, recreating as generations who are in a basement in Buenos far as the fetishist obsession a dull Russian interior Aires, a fishing club abandoned in the 1970s, the of the 1930s. So well that Sonia offers the rare gift “Gesta Heroïca”. This basement is located above of an autonomous show, sufficient unto itself: an underground river that crosses the city. There everything is created without any exterior artifice are no longer any fish in it apart from the myth of or forced theatricality, as if, through the interlock- the “Titan” tararira, a giant fish that was supposed ing of stories, the entanglement of destinies, the to have devoured the others and that the oldest mixture of registers, the frozen existence of these members of the club say they have seen. two men could suddenly come back to life on Ricardo Bartís, using this story as a base, builds, stage. With rigor, via a joyous tinkering of gestures with the Sportivo Teatral’s actors, a microcosm of and objects, everything is linked together in the characters who hold discussions on politics, love invention of an imaginary figure, who seems both and morality and in this way journey through the key to and the curse of the show. Argentina’s reality as close as possible to its con- cerns, its fantasies and its history. The reign of Peron, the military dictatorship and democracy are the stuff of the conversations and debates of page 40 these three men who carry within themselves the RICARDO BARTÍS melancholy of time that passes, disappointments of all sorts, childhood dreams that have not come true, frustrations in love and the fear of death. All In 1978, Ricardo Bartís became known as a theatre that remains for them is the “Titan” tararira to and film actor before creating his company, escape from this mediocre daily life, all that Sportivo Teatral, in 1981. Located in an old reno- remains for them is the myth of the giant fish so vated workshop which is a teaching, research and that they can continue to live. Always imagined performance centre at the same time, the collec- with a great deal of closeness between the actors tive jealously protects its autonomy rejecting all and the public, this work is a new step in the

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process of reappropriating the human being that Airport Kids Ricardo Bartís and Sportivo Teatral carry out, BY LOLA ARIAS AND STEFAN KAEGI aware as they are of the growing dehumanization that strikes so-called developed societies, and the 6 7 8 10 11 12 Argentine society in particular. Always with GYMNASE DU LYCÉE MISTRAL • 3 p.m. boundless energy, mixing fierceness, tenderness estimated running time 1 hour 15 mins • show in several and humour, never rejecting polemics, they want languages with French supertitles • 2008 premiere to communicate their conception of a theatre of directed by Lola Arias and Stefan Kaegi non-asepticized, unconventional actors in con- stant movement, theatre that makes it possible to They are called “nomad children”, “portable chil- observe the complexity of man in the grip of the dren”, “mobile children”, they travel from one world’s complexities. country to another but they feel like they are in the same place, they are bilingual or trilingual, have two or three passports, credit cards, instant mes- saging, connected friends everywhere and a diplo- page 42 matic vocabulary. The director of an international LOLA ARIAS school refers to them as “children of a third cul- ture”, neither local (birthplace) nor national (the & STEFAN KAEGI host country), but global and intimate at the same time, which all of them share in the world and Their life is made up of a host of languages. Lola which however is specific only to them. Stefan Arias is Argentine, Stefan Kaegi is Swiss and lives Kaegi and Lola Arias met them near Lausanne in Berlin. They work all around the world, speak where the head offices of multinational companies English, German, Spanish and French and like to brought them together, often for just a few hold discussions in Portuguese, the language of months, before their parents were transferred their first show together, of their encounter, in São elsewhere. The two artists also met foreign chil- Paulo, for Chacara paraiso (2006), a project with dren who arrived from the third world, new policemen with what policemen wish to express. refugees, adopted, abandoned, who mixed with Stefan Kaegi is, with Helgard Haug and Daniel the expatriate’s children. During a workshop, chil- Wetzel, a founding member of Rimini Protokoll, a dren from 8 to 14 years old were chosen who came Berlin theatre collective that practices “art traffick- from India, Morocco, Brazil, China, Romania, Russia ing”, blending reality and representation: in Kreuz- and Angola. For a few months, Stefan Kaegi and worträtsel Boxenstopp (2000), four ladies in their Lola Arias invented stories and scenes with them, eighties became Formula 1 experts and researchers based on their nomadic life and the crossings of in high speed; with Shooting Bourbaki (2002), five their cultures, languages and imaginations, fertil- teenagers from Lucerne shared their ballistic ized by ultra-modern communication techniques. knowledge and pleasure in pistol shooting; in These are short, collective formats, sometimes Deadline (2003), five doctors recounted their sung, often shared through image, video and elec- approaches to death; and in Mnemopark, in Avi- tronic and digital connections, that are presented gnon (2006), five pensioners who are model in boxes (cardboard, aluminium) in which each enthusiasts, and a young actress in charge of a individual recreates his own world. Hidden, iso- switching station revisited eternal Switzerland lated, in transit at certain moments; open, generous, through miniature trains. Lola Arias is an author, inventive at others, these children are especially director and performer. In Buenos Aires, she looking for a compass so that they can glimpse a founded the Compañia Postnuclear, a group of future world that they imagine is nearly already artists from different disciplines with whom she behind them. They are post-modern children, sor- staged several shows. Her latest creation, which is cerer’s apprentices who are frightening because a trilogy, Striptease, Rêve avec revolver (Dream of their instantaneous blend of innocence and with Revolver) and L’Amour est un franc-tireur technological knowledge, but who keep in them- (Love Is a Freeshooter), focuses on the tension selves, however, inexhaustible reserves of utopia. between reality and fiction. Her works have been presented at several international festivals and her texts are translated into French, English and Ger- man. Airport Kids is their second joint show. At the Festival d’Avignon, Stefan Kaegi / Rimini Protokoll presented Mnemopark and Cargo Sofia- Avignon in 2006.

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alive before us just for the pleasure of sharing, page 44 with tenderness and humour, the stage with these BENJAMIN VERDONCK objects themselves, Benjamin Verdonck places us in the heart of a mystery and makes us, in our turn, curious, intrigued, disturbed, captivated, moved… Benjamin Verdonck trained as an actor at the The precision with which each object is staged by Royal Flemish Conservatory of Antwerp where he the actor is only equalled by the beauty of this was the laureate in 1995. He worked with Ivo van world cobbled together between night and day, Hove, Johan Simons and Paul Koek while creating a between laughter and emotion. He does not tell musical theatre group with Valentine Kempynck one story but 10, 20, 100 stories that we interpret who subsequently was his associate in all his shows. according to our fantasies and experiences. Ben- Since 2000, he has staged works in different the- jamin Verdonck shifts, in a playful and deeply atre installations in the public space, such as Hiron- thought-out manner, our view on the world delle / Dooi Vogeltje / The Great Swallow, seven around us. Making these ordinary objects the days during which he remained perched in a nest heroes of his adventure, he forces us to perceive 32 m high, installed on the façade of the administra- them differently and to question, for a few tion centre of the city of Brussels calling out to moments, the unfolding of increasingly sophisti- passers-by; in I Like America and America Likes Me, cated images, sounds and objects that await us he held discussions with a pig for three days, to outside the performance, outside the theatre. evoke a certain disarray regarding the tensions Curious, demanding, Benjamin Verdonck returns between Iraq and the United States. Benjamin Ver- to Avignon to, without seeming to, question us on donck is currently artist in residence at the CAMPO our rampant consumption, our thirst for useless in Ghent, at the Toneelhuis in Antwerp and at the sophistication. Politically incorrect? Yes, but with KVS in Brussels, and has notably worked with the the lightness and freedom of a poet of the stage director Arne Sierens and the Het Muziek Lod who imposes nothing but shares everything. ensemble. Always very much involved in the con- cerns of his time, Benjamin Verdonck creates a highly political theatre that never tries to indoctri- nate but simply to question, to make people think, page 46 with the weapons of poetry, humour and stagecraft. VIRGILIO SIENI At the Festival d’Avignon, Benjamin Verdonck pre- sented, with Fumiyo Ikeda and Alain Platel, Nine Finger in 2007. With his hard body, as though carved out of rock, Virgilio Sieni is an impressive dancer whose work is centred on the exploration of a grammar spe- Wewilllivestorm cific to the controlled gestures, positions and BY BENJAMIN VERDONCK vagaries of the human shell. He is Florentine, 20 21 22 23 • 3 p.m. trained in modern and classical dance at the same 20 21 23 • 7 p.m. time as he studied art and architecture. In 1983, CHAPELLE DES PÉNITENTS BLANCS Virgilio Sieni founded his company and created running time 1 hour • premiere in France short original pieces with a small number of by Benjamin Verdonck and Valentine Kempynck dancers. He considers that dance is rooted in the concrete aspect of life, and the search for the sim- plest and most direct links between bodies What is happening on the stage of Wewill- encourages him to banish from the stage the livestorm, a personal work that Benjamin Ver- spectacular leaps, academic repertory and incar- donck created with his father and the musician nations that are too sentimental. The bodies he Tomas Desmet? A silent journey in the actor’s uni- sets in place and gets to move all seem connected verse? A dramatic poem recounted by animated to visual research, to a sound ambience and objects? A meeting between father and son? A human matter, as strange as they are dense and fantasy world in which any pretension would be rigorous. His company’s shows are regularly pre- chased away to leave room for simplicity leading sented in Italy and throughout Europe. directly to beauty? A child’s view on a universe Virgilio Sieni runs the Cango space which he too large for him? A questioning on time that founded in 2003 in Florence, a centre with an passes and death that approaches? Undoubtedly innovative concept, dedicated to experimentation all of these and a great many other things besides. on dance and the body’s disciplines, as well as a Accumulating objects from daily life – bread, contemporary artistic language. Cango is an inter- shoes, tables, etc. –, handling them, playing with national reference project open to encounters in them as if they were equals, making them come Italy and to welcoming international artists. In

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2007, he founded the Academy on the Art of the Gesture, a project focused on transmission, teach- page 48 ing and creation. The heart of the Academy is in PHILIPPE QUESNE / Florence but its influence is cast much farther afield through the artists and teachers that Virgilio VIVARIUM STUDIO Sieni has trained. Philippe Quesne created his first show La Démangeaison des ailes (Itching Wings) in 2003, a (Bone) Osso “revue-show” about the experience of flying and BY VIRGILIO SIENI falling, played – or rather incarnated – by a few 12 13 14 faithful followers (including the dog Hermes) GYMNASE DU LYCÉE SAINT-JOSEPH brought together in the Vivarium Studio company. 7 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. • running time 40 mins On a stage cluttered with the remains of today, with Virgilio and Fosco Sieni Philippe Quesne, 37 years old, gives free rein to his inspiration. He has a fertile imagination, developed When we see them side by side, Virgilio and Fosco from concrete cases from daily life. His training as Sieni, son and father, have the same serious face, a plastic artist and his profession as a scenogra- the same determined look, a deep expression, and pher (which he exercised for about 10 years) are they share a melancholic authenticity of the peo- replayed on stage for each of his creations. The ple. The older, and smaller, is simply “even less of a occupation of space and the miming of the arts dancer” than the younger. They constantly look are two characteristics of this stagecraft that for each other, hold each other, sometimes push Philippe Quesne wanted to be like a laboratory of each other away. They “dance” together, the body extreme situations of the ordinary, a radical devel- oblique, in an unstable equilibrium, sometimes opment of small experiments of urban and subur- taking each other’s hand, sharing a game, a drink, ban melancholy. D’après Nature (After Nature), in a table, a physical exercise, that is, poles apart 2006, established the emergence of Vivarium Stu- from choreography and prestigious duets. More- dio on the French and international stage, in which over, where are they lost, these two children from the 7 members play the end of the world like a a common family? Here they are as though they musical comedy in a tempered milieu. were shut up in cold, desolate, sad places that At the Festival d’Avignon, Philippe Quesne pre- they inhabit with the rare gesture and contained sented, in the framework of the Vingt-cinquième zeal. Suddenly, filial understanding is imposed, heure, Des Expériences (Experiences) in 2004. through magic tricks, a ball or hoop game, shared, tender as the pale sun that comes in through the windows. But often, each of them is sent back to La Mélancolie des dragons his solitude to be condemned to melancholy, a (The Melancholy of Dragons) BY PHILIPPE QUESNE strange ballet of jerky and repetitive gestures for the older man, purposeless contortions for the 18 19 21 22 23 24 younger, as if these two only had the parallel CLOÎTRE DES CÉLESTINS • 10 p.m. • estimated running trauma of the inability to communicate as an exis- time 1 hour 30 mins • 2008 premiere tence. This way of not talking, however, is also a conception, scenography, direction Philippe Quesne plunge into origins, the son finding in the father the beginning of his own gestures. It is man’s con- Practicing the dissection of its title itself, a triple dition that Virgilio Sieni explores in this show, anatomy of language, image and myth, a genuine which sometimes brings to mind the documen- cutaway view of meaning, this show is built as it tary film San Clemente by Raymond Depardon, unfolds. We therefore see melancholy, which is the the existence of this modern man who goes off to particular feature of the heroes forged by Philippe conquer himself and his physical identity. The only Quesne: those who question themselves on the breaks are no less radical, floating in a halo of texts, images, treatises, the humours of black bile white, red and blue light, accompanied by an and disenchantment, dragging their large carcass oppressive background sound, as though the or small round belly in a world that they do not father and son had been forgotten there to better understand, even if they generally master its tech- find and understand each other again. nologies. But these are whimsical techniques, that literally serve no purpose. We also see dragons, and those fantastic and monstrous creatures that have Sujets à Vif Programme D accompanied man in all his adventures from pre- Interrogations aux vertèbres history to the contemporary manga. Where are (Questions for Vertebrae) the monsters hiding? On the stage, there are a whole set of possibilities, composed with the

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actor’s body, his disguise, his anxieties. We finally see what connects melancholy and the dragons: page 50 creation itself, as the creator, since Dürer, has nec- SUPERAMAS essarily been melancholy, and that the dragon is undeniably the deformed product that emerges from his spirit. Everything is in motion: these crea- In astrophysics, the French word “superamas” des- tures move about in mobile homes, pulled by a ignates a galactic super cluster in migration, the small car, from one sycamore tree in the Cloître largest known structure in the universe; in the des Célestins to another. Philippe Quesne prac- southern United States, it is a supermarket chain; tices theatre as a chemical-physical experiment: on the stage, it is a collective that says “us” to bet- he takes his own things, cuts out texts, music, ref- ter assert its singularity. A Superamas show is erences, images, stories from others, puts it all on therefore many people on the stage, incompara- the stage, before putting humans in it. And we ble energy, lightness and complexity mixed rejoice in considering the way in which they disen- together, pleasure and seduction combined with a tangle themselves from this world, which sticks to pitiless criticism of our media, social and political their skin. reality. As they say “An eminently political position is incumbent on artists today: to not leave the monopoly of amusement up to Walt Disney. In in the framework of the Vingt-cinquième heure other words: “acting like a whore” can be an L’Effet de Serge (Serge’s Effect) extremely subversive position. And Superamas’ BY PHILIPPE QUESNE shows really cause critical damage through the implosion of pleasure: they perfectly mime our on the nights of the 11 to the 12, spectacular shortcomings to better challenge our the 12 to the 13, the 13 to the 14 condition of spectator/actor in an over-media- ÉCOLE D’ART • 1 a.m. • running time 1 hour 15 mins tized, over-productive world whose obsession conception, scenography, direction Philippe Quesne with power runs in fourth gear as well as in neutral. The French and Austrian artists who make up Sometimes poignant about solitude, Serge’s Superamas, a migrant and international structure Effect is not at all a tragedy of modern life. Serge, based in Vienna and Paris, play with all supports a solitary being, has however friends for whom he and all genres: theatre, dance, video, performance, organizes, each Sunday, one to three-minute installations, conversations, cocktail parties, the shows using special effects in which he demon- G8 or even schoolboy pranks between friends and strates, with cold humour, the scope of his poetic a huge pharaonic spectacle. For the last 10 or so imagination. Between the melancholic inventor’s years, they have been produced in many theatres solitude and the friendship of his circle of patient and festivals in Europe and have imposed their tril- spectators, a strange territory emerges, very con- ogy Big 1st Episode - Artificial Intelligence / Reality temporary in what it says about the obsession of a Show, Big 2nd Episode - Show / Business, Big 3rd character absorbed by his research, and moving Episode - Happy / End. Superamas presented Big because it shows a fervent desire to share which 3rd Episode and the installation High Art at the Fes- can be nothing but a source of disillusion. tival d’Avignon 2007. and with the CCAS, in the framework of Contre-courant Empire (Art & Politics) BY SUPERAMAS Échantillons (Samples) 12 July • ROND-POINT DE LA BARTHELASSE • 10 p.m. • 19 20 21 22 estimated running time 45 mins • free admission GYMNASE GÉRARD PHILIPE • 5 p.m. conception Philippe Quesne estimated running time 1 hour 30 mins • show in English Échantillons is a performance that questions the with French supertitles • 2008 premiere relationship with the spectator. It is from about a conception and production Superamas hundred captioned fragments, game instructions, notes, situations, special effects, from which the Superamas’ new show is a fable on the establish- public is invited to make a choice and influence ment and spreading of empires. Going from the the rhythm of the sequences using a computer recreation of a Napoleonic battle to the short mouse. travel film, from a worldly reception to a frenzied samba, from a ceremony with flags to fireworks with the smell of something burning, Empire (Art & Politics) is not exempt from a reflection on the nature of government propaganda or the fire- power of American imperialism. In May 1809, right

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outside Vienna, the emperor Napoleon’s armies Chant du bouc (Goat Song, 1991), Choral (1994), crossed the Danube with the intention of destroy- Bataille du Tagliamento (Battle of the Tagliamento, ing the forces of the archduke Karl. Over 175,000 1996), Orphéon (1998), Les Cantates (2001) and soldiers fought in the battles and 40,000 died in Coda (2004) are so many phases, so many evalu- two days. The Austrians have celebrated the ations of a research that constantly intertwines all Aspern victory ever since; French pupils know the the elements of theatre performance. battle won in Essling. Each side claims victory, but it was above all the first slaughter of the modern era, a vain combat with a victor that opened the Ricercar BY FRANÇOIS TANGUY way to industrial wars for cannon fodder. It was also a battle of press releases and triumphant edi- 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 • 6 p.m. torials: how is a victory fabricated? Should the leg- 19 22 • 8.30 p.m. end or the reality be printed? This is how empires GYMNASE DU LYCÉE MISTRAL are born and now they die. The Superamas’ show running time 1 hour 25 mins begins with this paradoxical success that is also a direction, scenography and lighting François Tanguy strange defeat, and continues with an entertaining questioning on the empire as though it were one of the fine arts: its creation, its filming, its propa- A demanding and generous artist, François Tan- ganda, its gossip, as well as its violence, its thirst guy takes the time needed for his ambitious proj- for power and its unstoppable need to reproduce ects that he executes with passion. For Ricercar, itself, even today, from summits gathering he has once again brought together a group of together the greatest powers to the war in actors and technicians to create a theatre of resist- Afghanistan. Empire (Art & Politics) shows all this ance with methods, with superficial entertainment on the stage, from Napoleonic imagery to George facilities, with sectarian theories, with formalism, Bush on television: how, trading a military uniform with mindlessness, a theatre that focuses on the for a three-piece suit, abandoning propaganda for pleasure of thinking, the strength of the imaginary the leisure industry, our politicians are dressed like and the violence of dramatic poetry. A theatre of our merchants, an inescapable sign of the dissem- urgency that is not created in confusion but in ination of imperial ideology. What remains is to rigor and that summons onto the stage all the arts present it as a hysterical show and to have it smell that can enrich it and without which it would only like gunpowder. perhaps be an empty shell: painting, music, litera- ture, philosophy… A theatre of the ceremonial that is built and destroyed in the same movement, a theatre that is composed and decomposed, is page 52 effaced and is reborn, that is turned inside out like FRANÇOIS TANGUY / a glove, a theatre of repeating motifs. The ricercar is a contrapuntal musical form that is less elabo- THÉÂTRE DU RADEAU rate than the fugue – which appeared later and uses a generating theme in a systematic manner, François Tanguy’s theatre career is inseparably whereas the ricercar links different episodes in linked with that of his company the Théâtre du which there are not necessarily any thematic con- Radeau with which he has invented all his cre- nections. As François Tanguy explains, “the title ations since 1982. Genuine ongoing research on Ricercar, even if it evokes these intertwining and theatre performance, constantly renewed ques- repeated movements that come from diverse tioning of “the possibilities of dramaturgy”, the sources and sound dynamisms, will here be the issue here is art and not communication, playful indication of a ‘milieu’, derived from the word curiosity and not entertainment. A theatre art itself. Ricercare: look for, examine, travel through… claimed as such, theatre where one must “be That, the returning inclusion of the figures, bodies, together” to visit theatre time and place. Each words, in the appearing of space and time – delib- work by François Tanguy and the Théâtre du erations constantly taken up again, summoned Radeau is the result of a patient and collective and revoked from the quick and the dead, sem- approach, comprised of a search for texts, music blances and meanings, airs and herbs.” On the and acting improvisation, which explains why the stage, the theatre directs itself. It is not solely a creations are so few in number. From Mystère question of having the words of François Villon Bouffe (Grub Mystery) in 1986 to Ricercar in 2007, and Dante, Pirandello and Kafka, Ezra Pound and a unique body of work is offered to us, a work that Mandelstam, Liszt, Berio, Berg, Verdi, Stravinsky or slowly makes its way forward. Jeu de Faust (Faust Beethoven heard; François Tanguy and his com- Game, 1987), Woyzek-Büchner, fragments forains panions create, drawing from these literary and (Woyzek-Büchner, Fairground fragments, 1989), musical universes, a world of fiction and invention,

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peopled with disjointed bodies that move in a Secret ATTRACTION, le spectacle framed-unframed space, made of depth, skilful (ATTRACTION, the show) diagonals, shadows and light, planks and tulle, that constantly alter the approach to and the percep- 6 7 9 10 12 13 15 16 18 tion of images. The show is meticulously built in 19 20 22 23 25 26 this constant fragmentation that allows time for COUR DU LYCÉE MISTRAL • 10 p.m. suspension and respiration in which everything running time 1 hour 45 mins seems to be able to happen on the stage. Theatre conception, staging, interpretation Johann Le Guillerm that has absolute trust in each spectator and his immeasurable capacity to dream, to be aston- ished, to accept turmoil, to penetrate the shadows, Out of sync, as though outside of time, Johann Le to go through the mirror of semblances, to share Guillerm is a troubling character. In the ring, he those ineffable moments that François Tanguy installs his feats as well as exposes his vulnerability, and the Théâtre du Radeau offer us. handling the symbolic and playing with the com- plexities of thought and the triviality of bodies. and Secret, the show in the ATTRACTION project Les rendez-vous de la pirogue explores the artist’s relationship with matter. Num- (The Pirogue’s Rendez-vous) ber after number, Johann Le Guillerm will share Certain mornings at 11 a.m., François Tanguy everything he knows about his reactions and his and the Théâtre du Radeau invite the public to metamorphoses with the spectator. Between the Gymnase du lycée Mistral to meet their artist, extreme concentration and sardonic absurdity, he philosopher and anthropologist friends. scoffs at the elements, institutes suspense, van- detailed program in the spectator’s guide, available at quishes or renounces in the man-matter clinch that the beginning of July mysteriously poetic tableaux vivants form. He growls before adversity, furiously goes at it with- out fearing the boredom that such obstinacy could cause and, in repetition, skims the surface of some- page 54 thing existential. Secret has evolved since 2004; CIRQUE ICI – stripped of certain numbers which are entirely cir- cus performances, it has become purer. And the JOHANN LE GUILLERM plastic constructions that comprise the show have taken on a new importance, perhaps more essen- Johann Le Guillerm trained on the tightrope and tial to the project’s global sense. But we are still at circus arts at the Centre National des Arts du the circus. A circus under pressure, between power Cirque (CNAC). He graduated from the school in and fragility. And a strange and sidereal beauty 1989 with honours. He subsequently toured with wells up out of this shared “Secret”. Archaos, then took part in the creation of La Volière Dromesko, co-founded the O circus with CNAC alumni and created his own circus, Cirque Monstration & La Motte ATTRACTION Ici in 1994. A year later, Où ça (Where’s That), his , l’installation (Monstration & The Lump. ATTRACTION, the installation) first solo, came into being. In 1996, he was awarded the National Grand Prix of the Circus. In 1999, he 5-26 July started out on an 18-month journey that took him LA MIROITERIE • opening hours 12 – 7 p.m. to every continent where he brought his uncertain- creation Johann Le Guillerm ties face to face with the imbalances of marginal- ized populations. When he returned in 2001, he At the heart of the ATTRACTION system, Monstra- laid the first bases of ATTRACTION, a step in his tion is the “laboratory” where Johann Le Guillerm quest to understand the world. A vast project that has given form for the last seven years to his includes, as of this date: Secret, the show, La Motte poetic research based on the point: the attraction (The Lump), circus phenomenon, Monstration, the point of the circus, the balance point, but also, as installation. These artistic objects form points of the smallest identifiable element, a point common reference in a universe of an artist who wants to to all of us… In his workshop, the artist became have a 360° view of the world around him. fascinated with spheres, turned around them, Johann Le Guillerm presented Secret at the Festi- minutely noted every viewpoint, then observed val d’Avignon in 2004. the metamorphoses that these spheres under- went when they entered in contact with each other and the combinations offered. Families of object-machines and other strange structures were born after this long gestation, translations of

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his observations. He called them “work sites” to and small ensembles, as for example Surrogate describe their perpetual evolution. The public is Cities, have been played by many orchestras invited to handle some of these machines in which around the world, including the Berlin Philhar- the point is highlighted to penetrate the circus monic under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle. In universe and to appropriate its discoveries. Other, 1993, he presented the first musical that he more plastic machines are exhibited. La Motte directed Or the Disastrous Disembarkment, fol- (The Lump), prototype IV, a mineral and vegetal lowed by The Repetition (Die Wiederholung after circus phenomenon in perpetual motion, comes Kierkegaard and Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1995), Black directly from the “circumambulations” workshop. on White (1996), Max Black (with André Wilms, This spectacular planet visible to the naked eye 1998), Hashirigaki (on the texts of Gertrude Stein, sends man back to his own planet earth. Currently 2000) and Eraritjaritjaka (based on the work of a prototype, La Motte (The Lump) should be 12 m Elias Canetti, 2004). He premiered his first opera high in its final version… We are in an experimental Landscape with Distant Relatives in 2002 after field in which Johann Le Guillerm shares the having paid tribute to Hanns Eisler with Eislerma- poetry of his “science of the idiot”, as he calls it, a terial in 1998. His works are played throughout the science that borrows a kind of very personal world and in particular at a host of festivals (Paris, grammar with a brand-new vocabulary from its Edinburgh, Vienna, Istanbul, Bologna, Brussels, totally intuitive cosmogony. Here, Johann Le Sydney, Singapore, Moscow, New York, Tokyo…) Guillerm signs a manifesto, the stance of an artist and have been awarded many prizes. who is not satisfied with any viewpoint that he has Heiner Goebbels is bringing a creation to the Fes- not tested beforehand. And in this dream of a tival d’Avignon for the first time. He was present at 360° view of the world, the entire circus is sum- the Festival as the composer for Les lieux de là moned, this “circular architecture of viewpoints”. (Places from There) by Mathilde Monnier in 1999. and Le Chantier des Architectures Stifters Dinge (The Work Site of Architectures) 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 • 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. These monumental structures created for the 10 11 12 13 • 9 p.m. Festival d’Avignon 2008, taken from Monstration, TINEL DE LA CHARTREUSE will be exhibited at several venues: La Miroiterie Running time 1 hour 10 mins • Premiere in France and La Chapelle du Miracle (venue of the Île-de- conception, music, direction Heiner Goebbels France region).

Heiner Goebbels’ theatre is unclassifiable, resist- ing any attempt at definition, any reduction to page 56 known and recognized codes. It is however, a the- HEINER GOEBBELS atre that is recognizable among a thousand but always in movement, from one universe to another, following the imagination of its creator, Born in 1952 in a family where making music was who always makes sure to stay in touch with the second nature, Heiner Goebbels learned to play realities of the present. With Stifters Dinge, the the piano, guitar and cello and took part in the spectator does not escape this search for a new family’s amateur musical trio. In the 1970s, he form based on composite elements that fit decided to study sociology, more politically cor- together like a giant puzzle. Objects, here five rect than music studies in the context of the pianos used in a surprising way, sounds, music – period. It was when he discovered the life and work from Bach to the chants of Colombian Indians – of the composer Hanns Eisler that he understood video images, paintings by Paolo Ucello or Ruis- the political importance that music can bear and dael, are brought on the stage and mixed, are that he created a group, “The Supposed Extreme exchanged, are modified, talk to each other, play Left-Wing Woodwind Orchestra” which was linked together, amuse each other and amuse us, sur- to the protest movements that were developing in prise each other and surprise us. Heiner Goebbels, Frankfurt. His career as a composer led him to the once again, knows better than anyone how to theatre: he composed incidental music and audio summon the arts, for a gripping tribute to theatre plays based on the texts of Heiner Müller. While machinery that shifts our view on and our relation- working with many directors, in particular Matthias ship with nature. Here, the theatre is the place Langhoff, Claus Peymann and Ruth Berghaus, he where the words of the sociologist, the novelist, also composed for dance and cinema and, starting particularly those of Adalbert Stifter, the politi- in 1988, for the Ensemble Modern and the Ensem- cian, Malcolm X, or the ethnologist join those of ble Intercontemporain. His compositions for large the composer, the place where the video-maker

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fraternizes with the painter. Always under pres- of nearly two hours, blending participation in sure, always in motion, with the minute details that cybernetic experiments and the contemplation of enchant, from one glide to another, it is the world the extreme states in a deeply human progression. of illusion and trompe l’oeil that appears to us. The In the installation Heart, a young woman dressed imperceptible play of lights that creates a group in white looks at the spectators. A machine inter- of disquieting shapes, the perfection of a sound acts with her every 500 heartbeats. Who holds montage that gives all its force to a surprising the power, the machine or the human being, the polyphony. An elegant and refined demiurge, a artist seems to wonder before the spectators. The demanding and meticulous craftsman, a choreog- entire itinerary however seems to reserve a very rapher for unusual objects, a composer for subtle answer because the stage asserts the pres- unknown instruments, Heiner Goebbels uses the ence of the actor, the interpreter, who is merely a most sophisticated technologies to serve a docile guinea pig subjected to the all powerful thought and an imaginary dimension that he mechanization of contemporary life. He knows offers as his share to his contemporaries. The live how to resist and finds the tricks of the body to performance that Heiner Goebbels’ theatre repre- often snatch power away from the machine. As in sents lets us see and hear in another way, some- Duet, where the circular motion of a mechanism times intrigues us but never leaves us indifferent. creates the energy of the two weightless bodies, which are caught and caught again, undoubtedly letting us perceive what there is that is most human in man: those gestures that go beyond the page 58 power of the object to trust only the other. It is to KRIS VERDONCK this constant interaction that Verdonck’s installa- tions invite us, as on each occasion man adapts himself to the mechanical power to better coun- From the laboratory that tested F16 fighter plane teract it: sunglasses let him look at the light of the engines, which fascinated the son of a military apocalypse (Box), impulses guide the woman lay- engineer during his childhood, Kris Verdonck has ing down on thin metal bars (Patent Human kept his taste for the humming machine. Today, at Energy), the human being seems to be reborn the age of 34, this Flemish artist invents other through a single steel rod shaken by a turning mechanical devices, which he tries to tune bodies movement as though “danced” (Dancer). What, all to and to compare sensorial logics. In his Brussels things considered, seems the essence of this ten- workshop, he designs these strange installations sion, ever palpable, sometimes panicky, or on the that, on each occasion, are used to make what he contrary reasoned, is a form of unstable equilib- calls “the puppet’s spirit” appear and come to life. rium: Kris Verdonck’s installations are located very It is this dual training (closer to the stage: he precisely on the balance point between the very began with directing; but attentive to images: he old and the overly modern, between life and iner- has a master’s in visual arts from the University of tia, light and shade, machinery and the body, the Antwerp) that he intends to place at the service of stage and society, that is to say, the very space of robots and cyborgs, while attempting to grasp disquieting strangeness. what, in the human being, goes beyond the mechanical object or the digital connection. Kris Verdonck presented his first installations at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts of Brussels, in two series of page 60 five plays, in 2003 and 2005, seven of which the THE QUAY BROTHERS artist has revived for the Festival d’Avignon.

The Quay brothers hold a separate place in Variation IV movie-making. That of eccentricity and the BY KRIS VERDONCK bizarre, whose cult they have maintained since 18 19 20 22 23 24 their first films, in the late 1970s, Nocturna Artifi- CHARTREUSE • 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. • estimated running cialia for example. Stephen and Timothy Quay, time 1 hour 50 mins • premiere in France • strolling show identical twins, were born in Philadelphia in 1947. It not recommended for spectators with reduced mobility was in their small Southbank studio in London, installations presented Box, Dancer, In, Heart, with its jumble of odd objects, bits of unusual sets Patent Human Energy, Duet, Rain and puppets, that they filmed on a miniature stage conception Kris Verdonck parts of their animated films, inspired by a uni- verse devoted to the ghosts of the eccentric and In this itinerary inside the Chartreuse of Villeneuve the phantoms of nonconformity. There are the lez Avignon, the spectator is invited to an initiation influences here of Mitteleuropa, the writers Robert

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Walser, Bruno Schulz and Franz Kafka and the film-makers Jan Svankmajer, Ladislas Starewicz page 62 and Jiri Trnka, but also Franju, Luis Buñuel, Lewis EMIO GRECO / Carroll, Karl Stockhausen and the Belgian surreal- ists. It is this museum of the weird, kept like a PIETER C. SCHOLTEN curiosities cabinet, that a large number of short films have come from over the last 30 years Emio Greco, Pieter C. Scholten as well as the among which are The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer troupe they founded a dozen years ago lay claim (1984), The Street of Crocodiles (1986), Rehearsals to the age of maturity. Located in Amsterdam, the for Extinct Anatomies (1987), the Stille Nacht Emio Greco | PC company tours more or less series, Anamorphosis (1991), In Absentia (2000), everywhere in the world. But the spirit of experi- The Phantom Museum (2003) as well as two long mentation has not gone away and the institution films, Institute Benjamenta (1995) and The Piano has continued its international forum initiatives, Tuner of Earthquakes (2006), masterpieces of the Accademia Mobile, proposing training ses- utterly strange feature-length films. sions and teaching, inviting troupes, publishing a review, books, a DVD and programmatic texts. Emio Greco, an Italian dancer and choreographer, Night Nursery Ceux qui désirent sans fin and Pieter C. Scholten, a Dutch choreographer, (Those who Endlessly Desire) first proposed a trilogy, Bianco, Rosso, Extra Dry EXHIBITION BY THE QUAY BROTHERS (1996-2000), Emio Greco’s body being the central 6-26 July subject. Then the Double Points series (begun in HÔTEL DE FORBIN LA BARBEN 1998), short experimental pieces, was responsible opening hours 12 - 7 p.m. • 2008 premiere for them being produced in many theatres and conception and production the Quay brothers festivals in Europe. Lastly, Hell, a show premiered at the Festival Montpellier Danse in 2006, the In this cinema installation, forgetting reason, result of four years of work, was the first of 4 sec- guided by his sensations, giving up narration to tions inspired by The Divine Comedy by Dante. travel through the regions dedicated to visual [purgatorio], which naturally follows, is divided affections and sound impressions, in a darkness into two parts, POPOPERA, which “is still a little bit pierced by luminous streaks, the visitor will be of hell”, and In visione, which “is already a little bit able to abandon himself, his senses awakened, to of paradise”. Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten the sleep of the imagination. The Quay brothers presented Double Points: Hell in the Sujets à vif invest, in Avignon, the Hôtel de Forbin La Barben, program at the Festival d’Avignon in 2005. an old building in the centre of the city, to install, on several floors, Night Nursery, Those who End- lessly Desire, made up of extracts from their very [purgatorio] POPOPERA BY EMIO GRECO AND PIETER C. SCHOLTEN recent films and productions – such as the shorts Orpheo and Eurydice, film-ballets inspired by 17 18 19 20 Monteverdi’s opera –, sets and objects. In each COUR DU LYCÉE SAINT-JOSEPH • 10 p.m. nook and cranny may be found this inimitable estimated running time 1 hour 15 mins • 2008 premiere manner of breathing life into matter, of having choreography, lighting, sound conception Emio Greco, brand-new visual impressions emerge, of explor- Pieter C. Scholten ing the strangest stains, deposits, cracks, folds and objects, of having unknown sounds heard, Often, looking at the dancers in [purgatorio] POP- hissing murmurings, muffled music, or of filming OPERA, one has the impression of confronting the dolls as though they were touching human beings legendary hydra, a monstrous creature with multi- damaged by time and the ups and downs of exis- ple heads, being both one and many, moving tence. We could think that the ghosts of this pri- together but each part of whose body seems vate mansion of old Avignon would love these autonomous, a strange movement blending the intruders who play with our sensations, invite us to general intention and specific rhythms. The reason experience the semi-consciousness of the projec- is that this body with seven heads is both very tions and disturb the habits of theatre and dance united and highly differentiated. It moves together, through these images that come from nowhere. provided with broad arm gestures, collapses col- lectively, brings itself back up in the same manner, spiked with electric guitar necks that make it look like a rock group while strengthening its heroic and martial appearance. But it is also very individ- ualized through each dancer’s personality and body. All around the stage, keeping its distance

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with the beast, but sometimes mixing with it in completely achieving. It was my challenge and my disturbing fusions, a singer walks, with her golden way of meeting it consisting in seeing everything, voice, her classical airs, her folk songs, her lamé reading everything, learning everything, swallow- dress. The omnipresent object of temptation in ing dance. I had this late relationship with dance [purgatorio] POPOPERA is the electric guitar, and an immediate one with its past and its pres- always on stage, taken in hand, then continuously ent.” Twelve years later, in June 2007, Olivier carried and played in the second part of the show. Dubois was awarded the special prize of the Syn- The music by the American composer Michael dicat de la Critique for his career as an interpreter Gordon seems to engender poses, gestures, fig- and choreographer. He started with Laura Simi ures, movements, as so many affects and sound and Damiano Foa, then worked as a dancer with moods that would take on successive states of Andy Degroat, Elio Gervasi, Jan Fabre, Karine incarnation. The dance proposed is as technical as Saporta, Angelin Preljocaj, Charles Cré-Ange, it is physical, brilliant and exhausting. A desired Dominique Boivin, Marie Pessemier, Nasser Martin- trial that makes these guitar heroes exemplary Gousseand and Sasha Waltz. Relatively quickly, he beings of purgatory: torn apart, courageous, full of also proposed his own choreographies: Under hope, but doomed to wander in tragedy. Cover, a solo he danced in 1999, then a duet with Christine Corday, Féroces (Ferocious), and En Sourdine (On the sly) and Peter Pan for a young HELL audience. For the Festival d’Avignon, Olivier BY EMIO GRECO AND PIETER C. SCHOLTEN Dubois presented Pour tout l’or du monde (For All 23 24 the Gold in the World) in the Sujets à vif program COUR DU LYCÉE SAINT-JOSEPH • 10 p.m. in 2006 and was present as a dancer in MC 14/22 running time 1 hour 45 mins (This Is My Body) by Angelin Preljocaj in 2001 and conception, lighting, scenography and sound Je suis sang (I Am Blood) and L’Histoire des larmes Emio Greco, Pieter C. Scholten (The History of Tears) by Jan Fabre in 2005.

Hell begins in a strange disco atmosphere. Then, (Faun[s]) in the dark, the dancers return, between a dead Faune(s) BY VASLAV NIJINSKI / DOMINIQUE BRUN, tree and a gate of lights. As of this moment, they SOPHIE PEREZ / XAVIER BOUSSIRON, impose their strange presence-absence, in a CHRISTOPHE HONORÉ, OLIVIER DUBOIS chiaroscuro that is increasingly raw and blinding. What does one do in hell? One smokes, one tries 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 to relearn – or unlearn – gestures, even the most CLOÎTRE DES CÉLESTINS • 10 p.m. ordinary ones. It is hard, it causes suffering, but at estimated running time 1 hour 10 mins • 2008 premiere least one suffers here in a group. There seems to original idea and interpretation Olivier Dubois be an unknown choreography, and all these bod- ies, very dissimilar, are looking for it, imposing a Faune(s) is a reappropriation of the modern dance dance that is as nervous as it is wild, but with its heritage: a project that aims at being both archae- pauses and, sometimes, an almost morbid holding ological and contemporary, historic and almost of the movement. The bodies finish stripping iconoclastic. Before Bakst’s large canvas, as it was themselves while dancing naked in the white, or arranged in 1912 on the stage of the Théâtre du bluish, light and when two black shapes come to Châtelet for the premiere, the idea was to revive meet them, like the guardians of the underworld L’Après-midi d’un faune (Afternoon of a Faun) and the Styx ferrymen. choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes with respect, rigor and modesty, under the direction of the choreographer Dominique Brun, while bringing this story up to page 64 the present. To the present of “the interpretation”, OLIVIER DUBOIS since Olivier Dubois, surrounded by nymphs, takes on the role danced by Nijinsky, the icon of the art of the stage that he appropriates. To the present Olivier Dubois is an atypical dancer. That can be of the “reinterpretation” as well, because he has seen on his body in a milieu that is often standard- turned over to several artists the task of freely ized: a round body, with curves, that he totally revisiting this fetish heritage, in the form of solos: assumes. But a body that moves a great deal, the director and scenographer Sophie Perez who gracefully and supplely. “I started dance late,” he works with the musician Xavier Boussiron, the says. “I felt that nothing could have been more film-maker Christophe Honoré, and Olivier Dubois obvious than trying it. I wanted to situate myself himself. The latter dances during the entire show, opposite something that I would never succeed in putting the question of the interpreter at the heart

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of the project: where are his combat and his con- Erase-E(X) parts 1,2,3,4,5,6 tribution? In measuring up to the faun, to its myth, BY THE WOOSTER GROUP, ANNE TERESA to the performance par excellence, to the history DE KEERSMAEKER, ISABELLA SOUPART, of an entire art? In the idea of simply making pos- KURT D’HAESELEER, GEORGES APERGHIS sible contemporary variations, opening this his- AND JOHANNE SAUNIER tory up to today’s theatre? Or in the resistance to these very variations, when a body is imposed by 23 25 26 itself and conceals any necessary betrayals. SALLE BENOÎT-XII • 5 p.m. “Crossing, composing and recomposing the work. running time 2 hours 30 mins including intermission Submitting yourself to it, bending to it and never- concept Joji Inc theless perverting to allow the work to exist…”, choreography The Wooster Group (1), Anne Teresa De Olivier Dubois writes about his desire to do battle Keersmaeker (2), Isabella Soupart (3), Johanne Saunier (6) with the faun. In other words, incarnating it to videoperformance Kurt d’Haeseleer (4) excess, and in this very excess, to disappear. musical text Georges Aperghis (5) scenography, light Jim Clayburgh

In 1953, Robert Rauschenberg erased a painting page 66 by Willem De Kooning to reappropriate it. It was JOJI INC / on the radical model of this act of modern art, Erased De Kooning Drawing, that Johanne Saunier JOHANNE SAUNIER and Jim Clayburgh imagined their own show, & JIM CLAYBURGH Erase-E(X), interpreted by Johanne Saunier: a palimpsest dance, a relay in which several chore- ographers will erase and recreate the piece of The Joji Inc company was founded by Johanne another. The first sketch is offered by the Belgian Saunier and Jim Clayburgh in 1998. She – “Jo” – choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, a comes from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rosas reinterpreted dance on the model of the mecha- company in which she was one of the principal nism that functions, races, then jams, by The dancers for 10 years, notably in Mikrokosmos, Stella Wooster Group as a variation based on the char- and ERTS. She has also worked with Michèle Anne acter of Bardot in Le Mépris (Contempt) by Jean- de Mey, Fatou Traoré and Thierry de Mey, and has Luc Godard. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker next taught at the PARTS school. Johanne Saunier is an recasts the piece as a pure, abstract rite, accom- interpreter par excellence. He – “Ji” – was one of the panied by Indian percussion instruments, before founders, 30 years ago, of the Wooster Group in the Brussels actress-dancer, director and chore- New York, where he was a decorator, lighting ographer Isabella Soupart makes Bardot spring up designer and official scenographer. Jim Clayburgh again, but decked out with a strange cybernetic, also created sets for several shows by the Mabou paranoid and blundering bodyguard. In the next Mines, Richard Foreman and the Isabella Soupart two parts, the video-maker Kurt D’Haeseleer then company. The two of them, the brunette who isn’t the composer Georges Aperghis take hold of this afraid of anything and the tall elegant New Yorker, staging and sound game through creating/eras- form a complementary choreography/scenograp- ing. Lastly, it is Johanne Saunier herself who closes her couple. Since 1998, they have created, together, the cycle on a very sensual note by surrounding about 10 shows, the solo Sans la voix des maîtres herself with two dancers. Before these six pieces (Without the Masters’ Voice), the piece for three performed in their continuity, we feel even more dancers Final Scene, another for four dancers, the physical work of a dance that makes the Landscape with 4 Figures, and It’s Like…, SWOT, machine seize up, contaminates and traps the Urban Bubbles. Launched in 2004, the Erase-E(X) myth of the femme fatale, disturbs the communi- project unfolds successively in six parts choreo- cation between beings and between the media, graphed and danced by Johanne Saunier and attacks movie glamour to project it and scatter it other interpreters. This show achieves the equilib- on the stage of gestures and moods. Le Mépris is rium, always unstable, that illustrates the definition replayed here in a panicky version, the diva of art according to Joji Inc: a dance that would be becoming a moth that knocks into the projectors’ just as physical as sedate, as overflowing with light, and the languid sensuality of the star is little energy as technically unstoppable, constantly by little minutely examined through a biting but relaunched by the inventiveness of the inter- absolutely joyous irony. The dancer Johanne preter’s gestures and stage practices. At the Festi- Saunier goes from one universe to the other with val d’Avignon, Johanne Saunier and Jim Clayburgh astonishing ease, engraving her share of artist- presented parts 1, 2 and 3 of Erase-E(X) in the interpreter in each of the show’s writings. Sujets à vif program in 2004 and 2005.

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rated body of thought on the human body, the page 68 monks’ spirituality and the practice of martial arts. SIDI LARBI Working at the Henan monastery, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui sought a dual initiation: he received CHERKAOUI gestures, rituals, rhythms and intuitions from the monks at the Shaolin temple, while offering them At the age of 32, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, associate a contemporary choreographic framework, com- artist at the Toneelhuis of Antwerp, has already posed of the arrangement of bodies, other compelled recognition as one of the virtuoso speeds, other types of musicality. This exchange, dancers of his generation, and one of the most transferred to the stage of a show, resembles the inventive choreographers calling on eclectic and learning of a new language, written between East surprising music in his shows with their very and West, that respects the kung-fu tradition and diverse styles and techniques. He danced with the contributes an original viewpoint to it, as though it Ballets C. de la B. in Its Op Bach by Alain Platel in concerned going back to the origins of an art that 1998 and quickly became known as a choreogra- is also a life-style. It is the body and its energy – pher with Rien de rien (Absolutely Nothing) in mastered, released, vital, animal – that enlivens the 2000, a piece for six dancers influenced by the stage of Sutra, where 17 Shaolin monks encircle melancholy of folk songs. In 2002, in Avignon, his Sidi Liarbi Cherkaoui in a choreography that shuns work as an interpreter in the solo It by Wim Van- folkloric recreation to better reinvent a philosophy dekeybus was hailed as the event of Vif du sujet. of life through its speeds and pauses, its bursts The same year, with Damien Jalet and two of and its withdrawals, its apparent vivacity and its Sasha Waltz’s dancers, he premiered D’avant internal release, its animal inspiration and its spiri- (Before), a show inspired by 13th century songs tual surges. The English artist Antony Gormley that went deeply into the violence of bodies and composed the visual and scenographic part of this the fanaticism of minds while mixing in gentle universe while the Polish musician Szymon breathing and poetic suspensions. Foi (Faith, Brzóska worked on its most intimate revelation, 2003), Tempus fugit (2004), In Memoriam (2005), between pulsing rhythm and melancholic discre- Mea Culpa (2006), Myth (2007) and Origine tion. In this strange zone, where bodies use all the (2008) have since confirmed his inspiration, physical means at their disposal while preserving blending sophisticated, erudite, medieval sources the soothing powers of mediation, a physical and generous, colourful, subtle and spectacular grammar composed of tradition and modernity, of interpretations. Straddling cultures, naturally com- matter and imagination has been written that tries fortable in crossing sources and in encounters, his to build a passage between a civilization and work with the English dancer and choreographer those who discover it: this journey of initiation that of Bengali origin, Akram Khan, Zero Degrees leads to the beauty of gesture. (2005), finally made Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui an important figure on the European stage. Baroque in his heart, curious, demanding, he will continue to regard dance as an adventure. At the Festival page 70 d’Avignon, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui presented It (in WAJDI MOUAWAD collaboration with Wim Vandekeybus) in the Vif du sujet program in 2002 and Tempus fugit in 2004; he was scheduled to present Foi in 2003. Born in Lebanon in 1968, Wajdi Mouawad, at the age of 8, was forced to abandon his native land because of the civil war and began an exile that Sutra led him to France. He was obliged, however, to BY SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI / ANTONY GORMLEY leave France in 1983 because the state refused to ORIGINAL MUSIC BY SZYMON BRZÓSKA give him the papers required to remain in the WITH THE MONKS OF THE SHAOLIN TEMPLE country, and he left for Quebec. He went to school 9 10 11 12 13 there and in 1991 received his diploma from the COUR DU LYCÉE SAINT-JOSEPH • 10 p.m. National Theatre School of Montreal. A writer and estimated running time 1 hour 15 mins • 2008 premiere director, he founded his first company Théâtre Ô direction and choreography Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Parleur, then, in 2000, he became the artistic director of the Théâtre de Quat’sous before set- Sutra is a kind of travel log, which led Sidi Larbi ting up the first French-Quebec company, Abé Cherkaoui to one of the sources of his inspiration, carré cé carré / Au carré de l’hypothénuse. Stag- the Shaolin temple in China, the cradle of kung-fu, ing his own texts Littoral, Willy Protagoras the mythic site where one comes across the ghost enfermé dans les toilettes (Willy Protagoras, Shut of Bruce Lee and one of the world’s most elabo- up in the Lavatory), Rêves (Dreams), Incendies

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(Fires) and in 2006 Forêts (Forests), he also human destiny. The uncontested master of the became interested in Shakespeare (Macbeth), stage that he transforms into an artist’s studio, Cervantes (Don Quixote), Irvine Welsh (Trainspot- organizing a permanent game of hide-and-seek, ting), Sophocles (The Trojans), Frank Wedekind not rejecting extreme simplicity while daring (Lulu), Pirandello (Six Characters in Search of an extreme complexity, not trying to explain but try- Author), Chekhov (The Three Sisters) and Louise ing to feel, Wajdi Mouawad knows how to light Bombardier (Ma mère chien [My Mother Dog]). the invisible that is hidden in each individual, Since 2007, he has been artistic director of the becoming one of the great contemporary poets French Theatre of the National Arts Centre of of human pain and suffering. Ottawa. Working on both sides of the Atlantic, he brings many producers in France and Canada into his project, mobilizing French and Canadian actors. He produces unique works that he says do page 72 not consist “in putting something on stage but in SUJETS À VIF with the Sacd putting something in the mind”, directing “the actors to bring them to a state of mind that is spe- 6-13 and 18-25 July cific to them and also specific to the show in which JARDIN DE LA VIERGE DU LYCÉE SAINT-JOSEPH they act, to contaminate the spectators”. Wajdi Mouawad presented Littoral at the Festival d’Avignon in 1999. 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 • 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Program A • 11 a.m. Seuls I-Fang Lin dancer • Christian Rizzo choreographer BY WAJDI MOUAWAD The Taiwanese dancer I Fan Ling and the chore- 19 20 21 22 24 25 ographer Christian Rizzo take off to explore the GYMNASE AUBANEL • 6 p.m. • running time 2 hours cuisines and markets of Taipei and cookbooks. A 2008 premiere proposal to dance the taste of the time that one text, direction and interpretation Wajdi Mouawad must know how to take “to be at work at the stove”. I Fan Ling is also an interpreter in 2008 Is it Wajdi Mouawad who undertakes, alone on vallée by Mathilde Monnier and Philippe Katerine. the stage, a journey into his unconscious, in quest of his most deeply buried desires, in quest of the and child he once was and whose image has been She’s Mine effaced, in quest of a forgotten mother tongue? Marta Izquierdo Muñoz dancer and choreographer Yes and no… because the author-director-actor Mark Tompkins and Frans Poelstra artistic collaborators throws us off the scent and makes himself the This solo alludes to popular “hand-made” stars, as master of true-lying, novelized autobiography, seen in Almodóvar and Fabio McNamara’s works, theatre self-fiction, using dramatic turns of but also to those fleeting, disposable stars that events to better shed light on the complexity of seem to say, like Edie Sedgwick: “I’d like to excite his thought processes. Based on the principle “I is the whole world even for just a minute”. Marta another”, he puts together a journey full of Izquierdo Muñoz benefits here from the artistic adventures, alternating epic moments full of overview of Mark Tompkins and Frans Poelstra, humour and tragic episodes, a journey in the two great choreographers and interpreters in present into a past concealed deep within the whom the continuity of life and the show allows unconscious that suddenly unmasks itself. In this the freedom to choose what belongs to one or complex and rich itinerary, the hero is “Seuls”, the other. simultaneously and concurrently a prodigal son, a blocked writer, an evolving artist, a child knocked Program B • 6 p.m. about. Using the maximum polymorphy and Brut de lettres (Brut Letters) polyphony that the theatre permits, mixing text, Julia Cima actress and dancer • Denis Lavant actor and music, video and lighting, Wajdi Mouawad com- director • Alain Didier-Weill playwright and psychoanalyst poses this living portrait of a man who touches Julia Cima, accompanied by the actor Denis and moves us with his questioning, his anguish, Lavant, takes hold of “brut writings”, found in the his incapacities, his desires, his wish to under- archives of 19th and early 20th centuries psychiatric stand and assume his relationship with the world hospitals written by people interned in them. by releasing himself from his conscious or uncon- Alain Didier-Weill contributes his experience to scious mental blocks. By going as deeply as pos- this exploration. sible into himself, by exposing himself without any false modesty, he touches the universality of

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and page 74 3 cailloux (3 Pebbles) Laurent Poitrenaux actor • Sylvain Prunenec dancer LA VINGT-CINQUIÈME HEURE Didier Galas director (The 25th Hour) “Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. 8 9 11 12 13 15 16 18 19 20 21 Act.” Dider Galas, Laruent Poitrenaux and Sylvain ÉCOLE D’ART Prunenec venture into the work of the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, a genuine detonator An invitation to artists to come and disturb Avi- for reflecting on our relationship with the intimate gnon nights. Five strange shows, close to perform- faced with the values of today’s world that is ance art, in the École d’Art basement. based on profitability, classification and quantifi- cation. They propose a reflection on artistic form during the nights of the 8 to the 9 as well as on the real and human nature. and the 9 to the 10 July at 1 a.m. Guardamunt 55’ (poème & considérations) running time 55 mins • after a poem by Vaslav Nijinsky 18 19 20 22 23 24 25 • 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. and an extract from his diary Bénédicte Le Lamer and Pascal Kirsch, who • 11 a.m. Program C founded the pEqUOd company in 2003, continue Chanteur plutôt qu’acteur their cycle based on Vaslav Nijinsky’s diaries pro- (Singer Rather Than Actor) posing a new form, a new variation on the star Massimo Furlan performer • Marielle Pinsard author dancer’s withdrawal into the Guardamunt villa Massimo Furlan, Swiss of Italian origin, meets where he devoted himself to writing – shortly Marielle Pinsard, a Swiss author, in an offbeat per- before he was interned. From dance to writing, formance that is different every day. They invite, in from music to silence, from the dazzle of life to the form of a strange public debate, philosophers, long years of isolation, Guardamunt 55’ gives tan- historians and personalities whom they will some- gible substance, in the form of a concert, to a times interpret themselves. poem by Nijinsky, taking us into territories with shifting borders, those of an intimacy overflowing and with sensitivity. La Nudité du ragout (The Nakedness of Stew) Ludor Citrik clown • Isabelle Wéry director and author during the nights of the 11 to the 12, A clown meets an actress: “the taming and taking the 12 to the 13 and the 13 to the 14 July at 1 a.m. wing of verbs, the jester tenderly drools before the high-spirited Belgian author”. This encounter gave L’Effet de Serge (Serge’s Effect) birth to the project: a colour lithograph of the running time 1 hour 15 mins • conception, scenography music hall, the clash of styles, the throb of moods. and direction Philippe Quesne Inviting his friends to share the show of his weekly A universe is created that is playful and sensual, creations, Serge forges a joint ceremony that is lustful and insatiable. both derisory but indispensable to his survival as a solitary man and to the perpetuation of his eternal Program D • 6 p.m. Barok childhood. Sonia Brunelli dancer • Simon Vincenzi choreographer during the nights of the 15 to the 16 The action grows out of a sound enclosed in a and the 16 to the 17 July at 1 a.m. room and its infinite repetition. The figure conse- quently changes form, opening up a dialogue Frans Poelstra, son dramaturge between inside and outside, between what acts et Bach (Frans Poelstra, his playwright and Bach) and what is perceived. running time 1 hour 45 mins • conception and production Frans Poelstra, Robert Steijn and Johann Sebastian Bach and “Everything this play recounts is potentially true”, Interrogations aux vertèbres Frans Poelstra admits with a smile. According to (Questions on Vertebrae) what Robert Steijn (the playwright) says, Frans Virgilio Sieni dancer • Stefano Scodanibbio musician and Poelstra (the interpreter) supposedly discovered composer • Giorgio Agamben philosopher dance with Bach. Working as a policeman, marked The result of a dialogue between Virgilio Sieni and by the Goldberg Variations, he supposedly fol- the philosopher Giorgio Agamben, the dancer lowed his intuition and left Amsterdam to impro- proposes, with the musician Stefano Scodanibbio, vise, for a summer, in the streets bordering the five studies, a first attempt at questions on verte- Popes’ Palace in Avignon. There, as everyone brae. What happens when they start to move? knows, a career can start and, in fact, his career started there. With self-mockery, the pair will set

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forth, point by point, the protocol of creation with- timate ship accompanied by her parents. Once in out avoiding its contradictions. the United States, she felt the absolute necessity of returning to Europe to once again fight in the during the nights of the 18 to the 19 Resistance. She was brought into General de and the 19 to the 20 July at 1 a.m. Gaulle’s cabinet in London where she wrote a You Invited Me, Don’t You large number of texts on France’s future. She died at the age of 34, in 1943. Throughout her life as a Remember? • Self Service My Name Is Neo (for fifteen minutes) writer, from the École Normale Supérieure (teach- ers college) at the start of the 1930s where the running time 1 hour • 3 short performances by director nicknamed her “the red virgin” for her fer- Yan Duyvendak • direction Imanol Atorrasagasti vent support of the weakest members of society, Yan Duyvendak’s performances are based on a to her last days impregnated by an ultimate mysti- play between TV or movie images and their cal crisis, Simone Weil battled against social desti- impossible reproduction with the resources of live tution, supported the worker’s condition and performance. In You Invited Me…, the artist uses politically, philosophically and spiritually defended sound tracks from films to call up that figure to the cause of freedom against oppression. Her whom the cinema, principally American, has given style is incandescent and she loved the theatre, tangible substance: evil. In Self Service, Yan she even wrote a play that was never published. Duyvendak raises questions about the relation- Laure Adler, drawing fragments from her corres- ships between text and image: which of them cre- pondence with her brother, in certain philosophi- ates meaning? Lastly, in My Name Is Leo…, the per- cal and political writings, proposes, with the former grapples with the final 15 minutes of the actress Anouk Grinberg, a staged reading. A voy- cult film Matrix. age through Simone Weil’s work and life that seeks to make the voice of those who will not sub- during the nights of the 20 to the 21 mit heard. and the 21 to the 22 July at 1 a.m. JERK running time 55 mins • after a short story by Dennis Cooper • conception and direction Gisèle Vienne page 77 Jerk is a strange, poetic, humorous and dark imag- THE FESTIVAL D’AVIGNON inary reconstruction of the hideous crimes of the American serial killer Dean Corll. With this solo for AND THE ISTS WELCOME a hand puppeteer interpreted by Jonathan THEATRE SCHOOLS Capdevielle, Gisèle Vienne continues her work on ATELIER ISTS, CLOÎTRE SAINT-LOUIS • free admission our different experiences of the perception of the tickets available at the Cloître Saint-Louis as of 1st July real. What is broached here is the further ques- tioning of the borders between realism and the How do we learn, how do we transmit? This ques- poetic, having us experience the links between tion reappears time and again in the Festival fantasy and reality. 2008. As an echo to these concerns, the ISTS (Higher Institute of Show Techniques), with the help of the Festival d’Avignon, will open the doors page 75 of its workshop in the Cloître Saint-Louis to stu- dents of two theatre schools so they can present LA VIERGE ROUGE the result of their schoolwork to spectators and Simone Weil, fragments professionals and enrich themselves with the Fes- (The Red Virgin. Simone Weil, fragments) tival experience. Two pedagogical projects of dif- 21 July ferent natures have been chosen: one trains direc- GYMNASE DU LYCÉE SAINT-JOSEPH • 7 p.m. tors under the aegis of Anatoli Vassiliev at the proposed by Laure Adler • with Anouk Grinberg ENSATT, the other actors directed by Ludovic Lagard and Laurent Poitrenaux at the ERAC. Simone Weil, born in 1909, a philosopher and Moreover, students from Dominique Valadié’s important figure of intellectual engagement, was class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art a teacher, factory worker, union organizer, militant Dramatique will take part in a “Rendez-vous avec in the National Front party, combatant alongside Antoine Vitez”. the Spanish Republicans in the Durruti Column, then a farm worker. In 1940, Jewish and lucid about the tragedy gripping Europe, she fled Paris for Marseille where she became a Resistance fighter. She left France for New York on the penul-

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ENSATT - Atelier Vassiliev • 7.30 p.m. page 79 5 and 9 July Platon / Magritte 1 (Plato / Magritte 1) running time 4 hours THÉÂTRE DES IDÉES 6 and 10 July Platon / Magritte 2 (Plato / Magritte 2) (Theatre of Ideas) running time 4 hours 9 10 13 14 16 18 19 23 8 and 11 July L’Impromptu de Versailles (The Versailles GYMNASE DU LYCÉE SAINT-JOSEPH • 3 p.m. Impromptu) • running time 2 hours 45 mins estimated running time 2 hours • free admission directors Agnès Adam, Hugues Badet, Yves Beauget, definitive program in the spectator’s guide, available at Cyril Cotinaut, Philippe Cotten, Marion Delplancke, the beginning of July Giampaolo Gotti, David Jauzion-Graverolles, Cédric Based on dialogues between philosophers, sociol- Jonchiere, Pierre Heitz, Stéphanie Lupo, Stéphane ogists and historians, the Théâtre des Idées – Poliakov, Judith von Radetzk and Anatoli Vassiliev which stemmed from discussions with the associ- ate artists – helps to shed light on certain ques- The ENSATT (National Higher School of Theatre tions raised by the Festival’s programming and Arts and Techniques) has welcomed, from 2004 constructs a critical space in line with the themes to 2008, students and trainees from the directing treated by the Festival’s artistic proposals. group, gathered around Anatoli Vassiliev for a conception and moderation Nicolas Truong kind of permanent laboratory for artistic research and training in directing. How can the light breath The debates of the first four years of the Théâtre of the theatre be found again? How can a verbal des Idées (2004-2007) are brought together in a text be transformed into a text for the stage? For book titled Le Théâtre des idées (Flammarion édi- the Plato / Magritte evenings, the solution is in the tions). development of two parallel lines of action, that of the verbalism of Plato’s dialogues and that of the 9 July • What Are Life’s New Ages dynamic image taken from Magritte’s pictures. and Customs? L’Impromptu de Versailles is based on the practice Children are adolescents earlier and earlier, young of study; it is a manifesto of a rehearsal method, a people remain so longer and longer, adults balk at means of free improvisation that brings us into leaving their youth and the elderly aspire to noth- this dialogue on art to look for, with Molière, the ing less than a second youth… How can this confu- very root of artistic creativity. This collective train- sion be handled between generations that experi- ing experience and these shows have given rise to ment with other rhythms and rites of passages, a directors’ collective: the “Laboratoire-Spectacle” new ways of living and dying, being born and association. transmitting? with Pierre-Henri Tavoillot philosopher

ERAC - Ensemble 16 • 6 p.m. 10 July • The Divine Comedy Today 18 19 20 22 23 24 July Sœurs et frères (Sisters and A journey of initiation and metaphysics, a poetic Brothers) • estimated running time 1 hour 30 mins and political experience, Dante’s masterpiece is text Olivier Cadiot • directed by Ludovic Lagarde contemporary with the birth of purgatory, that and Laurent Poitrenaux third place of the hereafter, located between hell and paradise, invented by a society that aspired to “Sortie d’école” (final year show) by the third-year more justice and recognition for the individual. students at the ERAC (Regional Actors School of What makes The Divine Comedy one of the frame- Cannes) supervised by the director Ludovic works of our modernity? Lagarde and the actor Laurent Poitrenaux with with Jacques Le Goff historian Sœurs et frères (Sisters and Brothers) by Olivier Jacqueline Risset author and translator Cadiot. Seven brothers and sisters meet during an inventory in the family house, their childhood 13 July • Which Return to Spirituality? playground. But rather than material goods, it is Alongside “God’s revenge” and the fanatical their common memory that they attempt to excesses that haunt a rendered planet, the spiri- share… Sœurs et frères was premiered by Ludovic tual force of religions – and especially of the Chris- Lagarde in 1993. In 2008, the text was adapted by tian heritage – appears as a way to postpone the the author for this “final year show” that will have crisis of hope, the absolute, meaning and horizon two different casts presented in rotation. of a disenchanted world. A new future comprised of an illusion or the only possible path to emanci- A special issue of Alternatives théâtrales, devoted pation? to the artists in the Festival’s programming, ques- with Tzvetan Todorov historian and essayist tions, in particular, the connection between cre- François Flahault philosopher ation and transmission.

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14 July • In Praise of Love page 80 Whether it is reduced to the biology of passions or diluted in relational individualism, love is threat- TRAITS D’UNION ened on all sides. Love however is an event that, 27 nouvelles pièces d’Europe just like art or rebellion, bursts into reality and (27 new European plays) rends its banality to open us up to difference, to 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 21 the encounter with the possibility of “Two”. It is a JARDIN DE LA RUE DE MONS • 11 a.m. • free admission political weapon as well, which must be saved and definitive program in the spectator’s guide, available at reinvented. the beginning of July with Alain Badiou philosopher On the occasion of the European Cultural Season 16 July • Is Another World Possible? which will take place during the second half of Through an encounter with an Italian philosopher 2008, in the framework of the French presidency who has worked on the idea of “biopolitics”, a of the European Union, an exceptional European neologism meant to identify a form of exercise of theatre project has been decided on: the selection power that no longer concerns just territories but of 27 European texts translated into French, pub- the life of individuals, that exceptional state which lished and presented at public readings. This proj- has become the rule in our societies will be ect, initiated by Culturesfrance, wishes to have the treated by referring to his work in progress. diversity and richness of contemporary European with Giorgio Agamben philosopher theatre writing be heard while having the public discover European playwrights known in their 18 July • Beyond Reason? country but still unpublished in France. Three Does the sleep of reason beget monsters, as Goya reading cycles, at the Festival d’Avignon, the Fes- wrote? Without slipping into a certain form of eso- tival La Mousson d’été (23 to 29 August) and the tericism, isn’t there a way of reaching the myster- Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe (1 to 29 November) ies of the human being without having recourse to will present 27 playwrights who come from each the traditional attributes of Western rationality? of the 27 member countries of the European How do dreams, childhood, sleep and other states Union, translated with the support of the Maison of consciousness challenge our certainties? Antoine Vitez and the Atelier Européen de la Tra- participants to come duction and published by éditions Théâtrales. The Festival has chosen Patrick Pineau to produce 19 July • What Kind of Approach the readings in Avignon. Five plays will be to Images? recorded and broadcast on France Culture. In a world where images proliferate and block our imagination, it seems necessary to turn once again readings by Nicolas Bonnefoy, Hervé Briaux, to critical activity in order to question the condi- Éric Elmosnino, Sylvie Orcier, Patrick Pineau, tions for a possible approach to the imagination. Julie Pouillon and Anne Soisson An invitation to dig deeper into the unconscious memory of images, to look at our own history with Belgium the tools that thinkers and artists such as Walter Risquons tout (Let’s Risk Everything) Benjamin and Pasolini offer us. by Filip Vanluchene • translation Monique Nagielkopf with Georges Didi-Huberman philosopher and art historian Bulgaria Petite Pièce pour chambre d’enfants 23 July • The Spectator’s Place: What Is His Responsibility? (Short Play for Children’s Bedroom) by Iana Borisova • translation Evgueniy Djurov, What place does the spectator of live perform- Frédéric Vossier ances hold in the “show society” in which the real world as it is experienced seems to be far if not Denmark absent from the television image? Must art deliver Chef-d’œuvre (Masterpiece) a message, impose a single meaning or permit the by Christian Lollike • translation Catherine Lise Dubost spectator to construct his viewpoint himself, at the risk of disorientation? Ireland with Florence Dupont theatre anthropologist Terminus Marie-José Mondzain philosopher by Mark O’Rowe • translation Isabelle Famchon

Latvia Les Cerfs noirs (The Black Stags) by Inga Abele • translation Gita Grinberga, Henri Menantaud

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Netherlands intercultural dialogue? Is it based on respect and Le jour, et la nuit, et le jour, après la mort (The mutual recognition or on domination and assimila- Day, and the Night, and the Day, After Death) tion? What role does Europe have to play in pro- by Esther Gerritsen • translation Monique Nagielkopf moting an active dialogue between the cultures that have founded it and those of other conti- United Kingdom nents? Can we ignore Europe’s colonial past and Débris hierarchization, even the cultural domination that by Dennis Kelly • translation Philippe Le Moine, accompanied it? Is intercultural dialogue likely to Pauline Sales reduce fundamentalism, fight exclusions and build a common, imaginary, geographic, peaceful and Slovenia prospective space? Artists and cultural operators Toute une vie (A Whole Life) are confronted with these basic questions in their by Andreja Zelinka • translation Liza Japelj Carone practice. Sweden Program Invasion! detailed program in the spectator’s guide, available in July by Jonas Hassen Khemiri • translation Susanne Burstein (with the collaboration of Aziz Chouaki) 11 july GYMNASE DU LYCÉE SAINT-JOSEPH • AVIGNON 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. • Is art a laboratory for interculturality? 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. • Migration and artistic creation page 81 THE EUROPEAN MEETINGS 12 july OF THE AIX AND AVIGNON AMPITHÉÂTRE DE L’INSTITUT D’ÉTUDES POLITIQUES AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVALS 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. • Art and conflict 11 and 12 july • 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. • free admission 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. • What are the conditions for a fertile intercultural dialogue in the artistic field? These meetings, a continuation of those initiated last year by the Avignon Festival, gather political, artistic, intellectual and cultural personalities to share a European cultural issue. Strengthened and page 89 broadened, the ambition of these meetings is also THE SPECTATOR’S GUIDE to be a space for reflection whose purpose is to To complement the program, day by day, the have art be an integral part of the European polit- spectator’s guide gives details on readings, exhibi- ical project. They are the result of close collabora- tions, encounters, debates and more, events that tion between two international festivals, the Inter- are most often free organized by the Festival or national Lyric Art Festival of Aix-en-Provence and its partners. It is available at the Cloître Saint- the Avignon Festival. On the occasion of the Euro- Louis and all the Festival’s venues at the beginning pean Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the two festi- of July. vals intend, based on concrete artistic experi- ences, to reflect on this idea and to query it in INTERNET SITE order to lay the foundations of future actions. From the dawn of time, cultures and forms of www.festival-avignon.com artistic expressions have been subject to cross- You will be able to find all the information on the breeding and reciprocal influences. Globalization Festival on the web site, which shows (press and the population movements it induces releases, images…) as well as many videos (press strengthen, accelerate and impact these phenom- conferences, encounters with the artists, etc.). ena. We are now witnessing a broad decompart- A new section will also let you share your impres- mentalization, a genuine movement towards inter- sions on the shows you have seen. Computers will disciplinarity, the emergence of artistic forms that be available for the public at the École d’Art. reflect a multicultural society. Concurrently, we are observing the rise in communitarianism, accom- panied by a strong temptation to fall back on one’s identity. Intercultural dialogue can also appear in its turn either as a panacea that guaran- tees the appeasement of conflicts or as the spec- tre of acculturation or the enemy of cultural diver- sity. Are there several acceptances of this idea of

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page 92 Gymnase Paul Giera 55 avenue Eisenhower, Avignon ITINERARY (1.8 km / 5 mins by car, 20 mins on foot from the main post office, leave from the Saint-Charles gate) Please note: on 14 July, the national holiday, because • turn right outside the ramparts, of the fireworks, you will encounter delays crossing follow the sign “autres directions” the Rhone river and reaching the city of Avignon • keep to the ramparts for about 300 m from the end of the afternoon. and at the 2nd traffic light, turn left onto the avenue Eisenhower and follow the sign Carrière de Boulbon “Champfleury/Palais Omnisport” (15 km / 20 mins from the main post office) • continue straight ahead on the avenue • turn right outside the ramparts, Eisenhower to the 1st roundabout, follow the sign “autres directions” follow the sign “Hameau de Champfleury” • take the pont de l’Europe bridge, to the 2nd roundabout, then follow the sign follow the sign “Nîmes” “gare TGV/Hameau de Champfleury” • at the end of the bridge, turn right, • the gymnasium is on the left, follow the sign “Villeneuve/Font d’Irac” 200 m from this point • at the stop sign, turn right, follow the sign “Aramon” Gymnase Gérard Philipe • continue for 9.3 km and at the roundabout, 75 rue Pablo Picasso, Avignon take the bridge following the sign (4.5 km / 12 mins by car from the main post office) “Vallabrègues/Boulbon” • turn left outside the ramparts • at the end of the bridge, turn right, following • keep to the ramparts for about 2 km the sign “Boulbon”, then immediately turn left, • turn right on the avenue de la Folie, follow the following the sign “La Carrière” sign “Pont des deux-eaux/Polyclinique Urbain V” (itinerary signposted) • continue straight ahead for about 2.2 km following the sign “Pont des deux-eaux” Châteaublanc • at the 3rd roundabout, turn right onto the Parc des expositions rue Vincent Van Gogh, following the sign chemin des Félons, Avignon “halte-garderie” (10 km / 30-40 mins from the main post office) • at the intersection (300 m from this point), • turn left outside the ramparts, follow the sign turn left onto the rue Pablo Picasso “Aix-en-Provence”, keeping to the ramparts • the gymnasium is just on your left • follow the sign “Cavaillon/Aix-en-Provence/ Marseille” (N7) for 8 km until the airport La Miroiterie rd roundabout (3 roundabout, be careful not 3 route de Lyon, Avignon to turn before) (200 m on foot from the Saint-Lazare gate) • at the roundabout, take the exit • turn right outside the ramparts, “Parc des expositions” (itinerary signposted) then left following the sign “Orange/Valence” • the venue is 20 m from this point La Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon (the Carthusian monastery) Shuttle buses 58 rue de la République, Villeneuve lez Avignon Detailed schedules in the spectator’s guide available (2.5 km / 20 mins from the main post office) at the beginning of July • turn right outside the ramparts, Shuttle buses to the various show venues leave follow the sign “autres directions” from the main post office • keep to the ramparts, follow the sign • Festival shuttles for Châteaublanc – “Barthelasse” until the Daladier bridge Parc des expositions and the Carrière de Boulbon • go under the bridge and follow the sign • Bustival lines for the Gymnase Paul Giera “Villeneuve” the Gymnase Gérard Philipe and the Chartreuse • take the bridge and cross both arms of the Rhone of Villeneuve lez Avignon • at the end of the bridge, turn right and follow • Bustival TCRA also has buses that run in the sign “Villeneuve centre” the evening • continue for about 1 km until the roundabout, turn left and follow the sign “centre historique/Hôtel de Ville” • continue to the monastery (itinerary signposted) • the car park is on the right about 20 m after the entrance (limited number of spaces)

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page 94 At the ticket office, Cloître Saint-Louis TICKET RESERVATIONS 20 rue du portail Boquier, 84000 Avignon open from 16 June • from 16 June to 3 July, from Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. • from 4 July, seven days a week from 11 a.m. by telephone to 7.30 p.m. + 33 (0) 4 90 14 14 14 • for shows on the same day, reservations close • from 16 June to 3 July from Monday to Friday three hours before the start of each performance. • from 4 July seven days a week Any remaining tickets go on sale at the entrance from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. to the show venue, 45 mins before the start (reservation fees: 1.60 € per ticket, 25 € flat rate of the performance for 25 seats or more) At the Fnac Payment reservation fees: 1.60 € per ticket • by credit card: discount tickets for Fnac members only confirmation at time of reservation • by cheque: until 30 June In the stores - Confirmation when the cheque (bank or postal in all Fnac stores in France, Switzerland for French accounts or eurocheque from abroad) and Belgium is received made out to the Festival d’Avignon (please write your customer code on the back or on www.fnac.com of the cheque) and sent to the following address: reservation fees: 1.60 € per ticket Festival d’Avignon, Service réservation, 20 rue (from 6 a.m. to 11.45 p.m., French time; except for du portail Boquier, 84000 Avignon 16 June when reservations open at 9 a.m.) - Your cheque must arrive within five days of your Payment phone reservation. The order becomes valid on • by credit card: receipt of payment. If no payment arrives after immediate confirmation when order is placed these five days, your reservation will be cancelled • by cheque: at least 10 days before the date • Starting on 1 July, only phone reservations paid of the first performance by credit card will be accepted. - the reservation is confirmed when the check is received (please write your customer code on By Internet the back of the cheque) www.festival-avignon.com - Tickets must be picked up during Fnac • reservation fees: 1.60 € per ticket opening hours • open from 16 June at 9 a.m. - Please note that Fnac stores are closed on • payment only by credit card Sundays and bank holidays • ticket sales are available until midnight of the night before the performance Ticket prices • Cour d’honneur at the Popes’ palace Ticket collection normal reduced folding seat So that you receive your tickets on time, tickets category I 36 € 30 € 25 € reserved by phone or Internet are not mailed category II 30 € 25 € 13 € but are to be picked up at the ticket office • from 16 June to 3 July, from Monday to Friday • Opera theatre from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. normal reduced • from 4 July, seven days a week from 11 a.m. category I 25 € 20 € to 7.30 p.m. category II 16 € 13 € • on the day of the show: - at the Cloître Saint-Louis until three hours Cat. I numbered seating: pit, stalls and dress circle before the start of the first show you have chosen Cat. II seats are not numbered: circle and - at the ticket booth at the venue of the first upper circle show chosen, 45 mins before the start of the performance • All other venues: see ticket prices, show by show, in the schedule page 96

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Discounts purchased at venues outside the city: For everyone the Carrière de Boulbon, the Chartreuse of • for the purchase of more than 25 tickets Villeneuve lez Avignon and the Gymnase Gérard (discount price) Philipe for the Roman tragedies. • individual multi-ticket for six or more shows Please note: on 14 July, the national holiday, because for the same person in the same order of the fireworks, you will encounter delays crossing (discount price) the Rhone river and reaching the city of Avignon from Available on the Internet, by phone and at the ticket the end of the afternoon. office at the Cloître Saint-Louis Avignon Pass: to discover the city On presentation By presenting your ticket to the Avignon Festival of documentary proof for at the entrance to the main monuments and • job-seekers (discount price) museums in Avignon and Villeneuve lez Avignon, • people working in the performing arts you’ll receive the PASS price (20 to 50 % (discount price) reduction depending on the venues visited) • young people under 25 years (single price 13 €) For more information, please contact the • students (single price 13 €) Tourist Office at + 33 (0)4 32 74 32 74 / - by phone only until 1 July with payment by cheque www.ot-avignon.fr and a photocopy of documentary proof (you must show the original document when you pick up For any further information your tickets) please call + 33 (0) 4 90 14 14 60 - at the ticket office of the Cloître Saint-Louis - at the entrance to the show venue Note: these reductions are not available at the Fnac. INFORMATION IN ENGLISH

Practical information The programme in English is available at the Accessibility Festival Office in Avignon, or by post on request Seats are available for spectators in wheelchairs (+ 33 (0) 4 90 14 14 60). You can also find or with reduced mobility. information in English on our website Reservations by phone only at www.festival-avignon.com + 33 (0) 4 90 14 14 14 until the day before each performance. Translations of the shows into English Unfortunately, because of their layout, certain venues The Avignon Festival wishes to give non-French- are not accessible. speaking spectators a particularly warm welcome. In addition, certain shows are more easily For five shows in the programming, one accessible to the hearing and vision impaired. performance will be translated into English either For more information, please call through supertitles or a simultaneous translation: + 33 (0) 4 90 14 14 60 10 July Ordet (La Parole) • 11 July Partage de midi 21 July La Mélancolie des dragons • 22 July Seuls Please read carefully 23 July Je tremble (1 et 2) • The doors open 15 to 30 mins before the start When you make your reservations, please of each show unless, for artistic or technical let us know if you would like to benefit from reasons, the audience may be seated later the English translations. (example: if the artists are on stage when the Moreover, the shows Airport Kids by Stefan spectators take their seats) Kaegi and Lola Arias and Empire (Art & Politics) • The performances begin on time. If you arrive by Superamas being mostly in English, they are late, you will not be admitted and your ticket will accessible to anglophone spectators for all the not be refunded performances. Lastly, many of the shows with • 5 mins before the start of the show, unpaid seats strong visual and musical components can be will be put on sale and numbered seats are no seen without any problems in comprehension longer guaranteed in the concerned venues by non-French-speaking spectators, especially • Children must have a ticket to be admitted to Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, Another sleepy the venues dusty delta day, Secret, Sutra, Erase-E(X), • Tickets are non-refundable and not-transferable [purgatorio] POPOPERA, Hell, Faune(s), 2008 • Venues with numbered seats: Cour d’honneur, vallée, Wewilllivestorm, Osso and Variation IV. Cour du lycée Saint-Joseph, Opéra-théâtre (cat. I), Carrière de Boulbon • all other venues: no numbered seats • Light meals, snacks and beverages may be

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